In Focus | Rio's Carnival 2013

Photo © Felipe Dana/AP-All Rights Reserved

In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic is on a roll. Following its featuring of the 2013 Sony World Photo Awards a few days ago, it now features gorgeous photographs of Rio's Carnival of 2013.

In Rio, more than 72,000 spectators watched the spectacle of samba school floats, dancers, and extravagant costumes during Carnival. More people took part in the numerous street parties, dancing and drinking for hours.

Attending Rio's Carnival is on my bucket list for as long as I remember. While living in Barcelona many years ago, I saw a beautiful billboard with an advert for Varig (at the time the only international airlines in Brazil) encouraging people to travel to Rio for the Carnival....and this reminded in me of my appreciation for Brazilian music...mostly bossa nova and samba. Some years before, I had watched -more than once- the French movie 'Un Homme Une Femme"whose one of its songs was the beautiful Samba Saravah (aka Samba da Bencao by the legendary Vinicius de Moraes), and even before that, I would listen to the music of Baden Powell, Stan Getz, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil...and of course, Joao Gilberto.

Carnival was introduced by the Portuguese to Brazil around 1850. The elite settlers from Europe would throw class and custom aside, dressing in the poorer clothing of commoners, while the commoners donned the fine garments of royalty. Native Brazilians eventually joined the festivities, and early 20th century, the beats of the samba joined the melting pot of music from several European cultures.

Brazil's ArcaPress Collective

I usually don't mention photographers collective on this blog, but I found that ArcaPress (started in May of 2010) which highlights Brazilian culture and covering such areas as religion, indigenous people, economic issues, urban reality, environment and wildlife.

I was particularly drawn to Between Faith And Fever by Guy Veloso, and Maracatu by Celso Oliviera.

Maracatu is the name of performance genres found in northeastern Brazil and in its northeastern state of Ceará. Maracatu describes the music style that accompanies these performances. Maracatu has close ties to Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies, and these performances are secular manifestations of these cults.

The Ashaninka: Mike Goldwater

Photo © Mike Goldwater-All Rights Reserved

In Focus, the photo blog of The Atlantic magazine, featured The Ashaninka, A Threatened Way of Life; photographs by Mike Goldwater. Be sure to view the photographs in the 1280px option if your monitor allows it.

The Ashaninka are an indigenous people living in the rain forests of Peru and in the State of Acre of Brazil, and are one of the largest indigenous groups in South America. Their number is estimated between 25,000 and 45,000.

Current threats are from oil companies, drug traffickers, colonists, illegal lumberers, illegal roads, conservation groups, missionary groups, and diseases. Roads are being built into the forest to extract mahogany and cedar trees for export to markets in the United States and Europe despite an international embargo. Religious missionary groups are intent on changing Ashaninka culture and belief systems, ignoring the impact on their long term survival.

Mike Goldwater is a photographer, who ran the Half Moon Gallery in London's East End from 1974 to 1980, and who created the magazine "Camerawork". He also co-founded photo agency 'Network Photographers' for photojournalism, documentary photography and corporate work.  He traveled to over 70 countries and his images were published in major magazines around the world.

You may also wish to see Tatiana Cardeal's work on South American indigenous people.

Antonio Mari: Candomble

Photo © Antonio Mari-All Rights Reserved

Here's the work of Antonio Mari, US-Brazilian photographer living in both countries, and specializing in ethnophotography. His work appeared in the New York Times, The New York Post, Newsday, Gannett Newspapers, Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Veja Magazine (Brazil), Time Magazine, Science Magazine and the Boston Globe, as well as Geo Magazine (Germany).


I was drawn to his Bahia of All Saints (Candomble) gallery which depicts the practice of the Afro-Brazilian syncretism called Candomble in the Reconcavo Baiano region of the northeastern state of Bahia,Brazil. The images were made during an offering ceremony in a small village called Milagre San Roque.

Cristina Mittermeier: River People of the Amazon

Photo © Cristina Mittermeier-All Rights Reserved

Cristina Mittermeier grew up just outside of Mexico City, and is a photographer, a marine biologist, a writer, a world traveler, has a 20 year-long career in conservation and raised children. She is also Executive Director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Her passion in life is to use her photography to protect the planet’s resources.

Cristina is also a SONY Artisan of Imagery Photographer.

My favorite gallery out of Cristina's many galleries is that of the River People of the Amazon with photographs of the Kayapo people of the Amazon basin. However, before exploring Cristina's galleries, stay a moment on the main page of her website, click on Hide Menu at its bottom, and revel in her handful of glorious large photographs of the Amazon...these alone are worth the visit!

The Kayapo people are the native people of the plain lands of the Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil, south of the Amazon Basin and along Rio Xingu and its tributaries. Their population was just over 7000 in the latest census. Interesting, they extract medicine from 650 different plants that they find in the rainforest, and have a trade agreement with Body Shop!

Fernanda Preto: Cowboys of Pantanal

Fernanda Preto is a Brazilian photojournalist currently based in Sao Paulo, and after living in the Amazon area for three years, has worked in environment and social reportages. She obtained degrees from the Panamerican School of Arts in Sao Paulo and from the Tuiuti University of Parana.

Her short film is about the Cowboys of Pantanal, which she produced using a Canon 5D Mark II. Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world. Its largest area is in the state of Matto Grosso do Sul, with the rest being in Bolivia and Paraguay. It's considered as one of the last 37 natural wilderness areas in the world. The cowboys working in the area have survived for more than 100 years, doing the same task as the fathers and forefathers did, drive cattle to the highlands before the floods.

You can also see Fernanda's very well composed still images of the Pantanal Cowboys on her website by hovering your cursor over Features.