MoMa hosts the largest exhibition of Brazilian photography abroad

In March of next year, MoMa (New York's Museum of Modern Art) will host the largest exhibition of Brazilian photography ever mounted outside of Brazil. Called Fotoclubismo, the show features over 140 unforgettable works from the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB) of São Paulo produced mainly in the mid-20th century.

Pioneer of Brazilian photography

For those who don't know, the FCCB was founded in 1939 and is one of the most traditional photography groups in Brazil. Its members - many of them women - produced amateur but ambitious works that embodied the abundant originality of post-war Brazilian culture. . Names such as Thomas Farkas, Geraldo de Barros, German Lorca, Eduardo Salvatore, Chico Albuquerque, Madalena Schwartz and José Yalenti are some of those who have passed through the Club. For most of the members, however, photography was a weekend hobby. However, that did not mean they took their artistic ambitions any less seriously. The photographs they took took many forms: from inventive experiments with abstraction to reflections on the everyday life.

Although his work was widely disseminated by other artists, particularly in the 1950s, this is the first major museum exhibition to present this fascinating moment in the history of photography to audiences outside of Brazil.

Amateur photography: a question to reflect on

The photographs on display demonstrate the group's extraordinary reach, providing valuable insights into how photographic aesthetics were framed in the mid-20th century. They also invite us to reflect on the importance of amateur status today, given the reality of social media. . In an interview with Estado de São Paulo, MoMa photography curator Sarah Meister stated “Since the invention of the Kodak camera in 1889, photographers with artistic ambition have struggled to distance themselves from the work of amateurs or simple professionals interested only in production . And, as in the case of our contemporary Instagram, within Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante there were many inventive, ambitious photographers, producing unforgettable works, while others were less original.” Currently, MoMa's collection contains more than 30,000 photographs from various places around the world, including Brazil. The FCCB remains active, offering courses, workshops, chats and even photography tours.