“At the moment I am seated by a beautiful
brook that bounds through the forests of Apacheland. Numberless
birds are singing their songs of life and love. Within my reach
lies a tree, felled only last night by a beaver, which even now
darts out into the light, scans his surroundings, and scampers
back,” reads
the text in the notebook belonging to Edward Curtis (1858 - 1952),
who left us 20 volumes – The North American Indian,
1907-1930 – in which he documented the life, customs, myths,
habits, religion, language and much more, of dozens of North
American tribes. Curtis created a record of a people that mutated
and died; the last of the almost 40,000 negatives he left featured
Wilbur Peebo, an Apache, wearing …a jacket and tie.
Today, artistic photography (if it may be labeled as such) has
left its documentary function behind and has blown up the mirror
of reality to replace it with thousands, millions of aesthetic
universes. The photographs by so many artists from our country
and from all over the world, young talents and masters, continue
to open up poetic spaces that are increasingly original and surprising;
universes that do not exist in visible reality, but that can
be found in humanity’s collective unconscious.
Many people (at least those who read these lines) have cell phone
cameras or small, digital pocket cameras, and feel a passion
for recording not only the great moments (rites of passage, a
social anthropologist would say) but also those that are a part
of everyday life – dinner with friends, personal matters,
playing with their children. And everything is posted in blogs,
websites, or in social networks such as the omniscient Facebook.
Photography shows us that the documentary spirit is not a characteristic
of photography but of the human being. The poetry that accompanied
the solemn moment when Curtis prepared and shot his camera, or
the immediacy and swiftness with which we take a picture today
and post it on the web are not relevant; today, like yesterday,
photography continues to be a cornerstone in the construction
of the identities of all of us.
In the Contest that
Petrobrás has been sponsoring for
several years now, the jury has the chance to review more than
a thousand diverse proposals. They are all different and each
of them constructs its own poetic structure – from those
that follow in Curtis’s footsteps to those that are posted
on Facebook We have selected barely a dozen photographs,
which – we believe – have the necessary strength
to compete for the top prize. Once again, we would like to express
our appreciation for the participants’ support, the organizers’ professionalism
and the good attitude and disposition of the Petrobrás
authorities.
Nº 285 Hans Igor Stoll
Mikulak
Title: from the series
Digital photograph printed on cotton fiber paper
Technique: Fotografía digital impresa sobre papel de fibra de algodón
Nº 1186 Mercedes
Soledad Manrique Title: Sin Título.
Technique:
Analog technique, medium format
Nº 454 Maria
Ananké Asseff
Title: No está hecho para sufrir
Technique:
Photograph printed on Lambda paper
Year: 2009 | 120 x 120 cm
Nº 376 Julieta
Anaut
Title:“En la frontera” de la Serie Destierro
del mar
Technique:Digitally manipulated photograph
Dimensions: 70 x 100 cm
Year: 2009
Nº 665 José Ramón
Moreno Fernández Title: Geometría
(2008). Series: En Blanco
Technique: Mineral pigments and cotton paper on dibond
Dimensions: 80 x 120 cm
Edition:1/5 + 2 PA
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