Photo memories of a city in transformation

The paradox of building and demolishing São Paulo’s streets, squares, buildings, symbols and monuments is vividly conveyed in 300 photographs culled from the city government’s archives.

The oldest street photographs in the exhibit (1862) already show signs of the city’s great transformation, an overarching attitude that led to the demolishment of the myriad uses and functions of untold spaces and landscapes.

This unprecedented exhibit brings together renowned urban photographers like Militão Augusto de Azevedo, Guilherme Gaensly, Aurélio Becherini, Benedito Junqueira Duarte, Chico Vizzoni and Ivo Justino who captured the paradoxes of São Paulo from a mid 19th century small city to the dawn of a 1970s megalopolis.