Claudia Andujar: No Lugar do Outro
Claudia Andujar: No lugar do Outro [In the Place of the Other] results from a two years research on the photographer’s archive, and is the first major retrospective of the work Andujar (b. 1931, Switzerland) developed between 1955, when se arrived to São Paulo, and the early 70s, when took place her first journeys to the Amazon. The exhibition presents, thus, her production from the 60s and 70s, prior to her involvement with the Yanomami indigenous people.
Curated by Thyago Nogueira, the show brings to light little known aspects of the photographer’s trajectory, by exhibiting her earlier works: photojournalistic works and personal video essays that include from documental black and white records from the early years of her career until her colored works with graphic experimentation from the late 60s and early 70s.
The show is divided in four sections. The first one, Brazilian Families, presents one of the first immersion works produced by Andujar in Brazil. From 1962 to 1964, she accompanied and photographed the quotidian of four different families: a family from Bahia owner of a successful cocoa farm; one from São Paulo’s middle class; a family of fisherman secluded in a beach of Ubatuba (State of São Paulo); and a religious family from Minas Gerais. The artist intended to sell the work to a magazine, but there was no interest from the publisher, and the series remained unseen.
The second core comprises photo reports created to Realidade magazine, where she worked from 1966 to 1971. Created in 1966, Realidade was a milestone in Brazilian press history due to the quality of the articles and to their impressive photographers team, which gathered names like Maureen Bisilliat, George Love and David Drew Zingg. The editorial audacity of the magazine allowed Andujar to go deep in controversial themes less approached by general press. For the magazine, she portrayed the polemic operations of the spiritual healer Zé Arigó, in Minas Gerais; the intense activity of a midwife in a small city in Rio Grande do Sul; the situation of the patients from Juqueri Psychiatric Hospital, in São Paulo; and the controversial “trem baiano” (Baiano train), that took unemployed immigrants back to their states from São Paulo. For the magazine, Andujar also developed photo essays to illustrate articles. On the show can be seen an unpublished series about homosexual relationships and an essay about the nature of nightmares.
The third sector is formed by three experimental essays that Claudia developed in São Paulo, motivated by her interest in the city and in the human body. It comprises the series about the Direita street, nudes from the series “A Sônia” and aerial photographs taken with infrared film.
The fourth and last sector is composed of nature photos made during her first trips to the Amazon region, during the early 1970s, specially along the river Jari, in the states of Pará and Roraima. These photos are marked by a strong desire to experiment and a deep sensibility, both marks of Anduja’s production of the period.
In 1971, while working on a special issue of Realidade about the Amazon, she got in contact with the Yanomami Indians. From this point on, she transformed the documentation and protection of this people in her life mission. Her work as photographer and her political activity with the Pró-Yanomami Commission brought countless contributions to the country. For the years that followed, Andujar’s work with the indigenous people obfuscated her previous work, which now starts, with this exhibition, to be recovered.
