{"id":50005,"date":"2014-11-24T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=50005"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:16","slug":"see-rio-de-janeiros-favelas-through-the-lens-of-young-residents-pinhole-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/see-rio-de-janeiros-favelas-through-the-lens-of-young-residents-pinhole-cameras\/","title":{"rendered":"See Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas through the Lens of Young Residents\u2019 Pinhole Cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Santa<\/a>

Santa Tereza, neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Juliana de Oliveira, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

A can with a little hole and some duct tape. It sounds simple, but that’s where the paradox resides. To photograph with a digital camera in auto mode, all you need to do is click. But a pinhole, the mother of all analog cameras, requires much more than that: a good dose of patience and concentration, for a start, but also an understanding of the basic principle of photography<\/a>, which is controlling light. After that, some imagination, inspiration and encouragement will do the rest.<\/p>\n

At least that is what the\u00a0\u201cM\u00e3o na Lata\u201d<\/a> (Hand on can) project is about. It consists of distributing pinhole cameras to teenagers from 12 to 18 years old in Complexo da Mar\u00e9, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro comprising of 16 favelas <\/a>\u00a0<\/em>where about 130,000 people live. From the crafting of the cameras, made with powdered milk cans, to the developing of the negatives, everything is done by the participants themselves, who are asked to document their community’s daily life in black and white.<\/p>\n

M\u00e3o na Lata, which was founded by photographer Tatiana Altberg<\/a>, has offered craft photography<\/a> and literature workshops to young people from the community in partnership with NGO Redes da Mar\u00e9<\/a> (Mar\u00e9 Networks) since 2003. In 2012, Altberg gained support from state oil company Petrobr\u00e1s, through the Brazilian Rouanet Law (which encourages companies to finance cultural projects), to develop the project \u201cFrom craft to digital\u201d, in which students learned the basics of digital photography<\/a> in addition to pinhole photography. The project also encouraged students to photograph places mentioned in the books of Machado de Assis, a Brazilian writer who lived in Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century and was one of the most important names in national literature.<\/p>\n

The initiative resulted in the book \u201cCada Dia Meu Pensamento \u00e9 Diferente\u201d<\/a> (Each day my thought is different), a compilation of the teenagers\u2019 work, released by NAU publishing house in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Ramos,<\/a>

Ramos, near Complexo da Mar\u00e9. Photo by Yasmin Lopes, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Passeio<\/a>

Passeio P\u00fablico, downtown Rio de Janeiro. Foto by Rafael Oliveira, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the book, Eliana Souza Silva, director of Redes da Mar\u00e9, writes about the project:<\/p>\n

This collective work brings together artistic quality and political impact. It affirms that the inhabitants of the Mar\u00e9 neighborhood create and reinvent themselves everyday, like any other citizen from the polis<\/em>. The initiative is part of a larger project from Redes da Mar\u00e9, an institution who bets on initiatives that create\/stimulate aesthetic experiences as a fundamental part of human life in an important region from Rio de Janeiro, the Mar\u00e9. […] All this acknowledging this process as a right that has been historically denied to a certain part of the Brazilian population.<\/p>\n

\"Miolo<\/a>

Miolo street in Nova Holanda, Complexo da Mar\u00e9. Photo by G\u00e9ssica Nunes, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Lapa<\/a>

Lapa Arches, downtown Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Nicole Cristina da Silva, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

Altberg and Luiza Leite, professor of literature who collaborated with the book’s edition, explain what inspired them to choose the book’s title:<\/p>\n

The book’s title is an excerpt of an essay written by one of the students. We wanted a title that could express the changing quality of the reflective thought, something that was achieved by the students after a long process of creation.<\/p>\n

\"Rua<\/a>

Rua do Ros\u00e1rio, Centro. Photo by Jonas Willami Ferreira, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Livramento<\/a>

Livramento Hill, Gamboa. Photo by Larisse Paiva, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

The author of said essay is Jonas Willami, 17, who said this in the book’s launch party<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It gave me more passion for photography. It was a great sensation, to see everyone’s happiness here in the launch party, because this is not just a project, we are a family. And the sentence fits perfectly with the book’s story.<\/p>\n

\"Sargento<\/a>

Sargento Silva Nunes st., Nova Holanda, Complexo da Mar\u00e9. Photo by Augusto Ara\u00fajo, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Itamaraty<\/a>

Itamaraty Palace, downtown Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Lucas Eduardo Merc\u00eas da Costa, published with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the book, Ana Maria Mauad, associate professor at the History Department of Federal Fluminense University, reflects on the symbolism and timeless character of the images:<\/p>\n

The world we get to know with those images traverses time, uniting past and present\u00a0\u2013 the \u201cRio de Janeiros\u201d of Machado de Assis, of the conflict, of the pacification, of the life of common people in their fascinating exceptionalities.<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

This article was originally published by <\/em>Global Voices Online and is reproduced on this website (Oximity) as part of a content sharing partnership.<\/em><\/p>\n

Translated by Taisa Sganzerla<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 oximity.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cM\u00e3o na Lata\u201d (Hand on can) project consists of distributing pinhole cameras to teenagers from 12 to 18 years old in Complexo da Mar\u00e9, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro comprising of 16 favelas where about 130,000 people live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}