Tag: Oscar Niemeyer

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil – 2007

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil – in December 2007 I was fortunate to be able to go to Brasilia as a guest of the British Embassy who were backing an exhibition of my pictures of environmental protests in London as a part of Foto Arte 2007, a huge photography event that stretched on for 3 months with over 20 international shows and more than a hundred individual and group shows from Brazil, apparently in 57 locations across the city.

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil - 2007

Unfortunately I was unable to stay there long as I needed to be home in plenty of time for Christmas, but the three days I spent there I was extremely busy. As well as attending the opening of my exhibition and some other shows and giving a lecture I was on the go from shortly after breakfast to late at night, being given personal guided tours.

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil - 2007

My guide for much of this was a daughter of one of the city planners in a team led by planner Lúcio Costa (1902- 1998) and architect Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012) and with an inside knowledge of the city and its development.

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil - 2007
My show was in this building at Espaco Cultural Renato Russo in Quadra 508 Sul, Brazilia

Planning for the new city in the interior of Brazil began in 1956 and the city was developed remarkably quickly, officially opened in 1960, though much had still to be completed.

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil - 2007
National Library (Biblioteca Nacional Leonel de Moura Brizola)

Brasilia incorporates many of the key aspects of modern architecture and 20th century city planning, Costa, an architect and planner adopted the modernist ideas of Le Corbusier around 1930 and Niemeyer worked with him from around that time.

Niemeyer was one of the twentieth century’s most renowned architects, developing modernism in new directions with his “free-flowing, sensual curves” in a remarkable use of reinforced concrete, and constructing buildings is cities around the world.

Memorial to the Indigenous Peoples (Memorial dos Povos Indigenas)

He was invited to design the civic buildings of the new capital, most of which I was able to see and to photograph during my visit. In 1987 his work there was internationally recognised when Brasilia was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Congress. The left dome and tower is the senate, the right the house of representatives

Politics intervened when Brazil became a military dictatorship and Niemeyer had to move to Paris to continue his work, including buildings in France, Spain and other countries, but not in the UK, where his only building was a temporary pavilion in Hyde Park in 2003.

Panteão da Pátria (Pantheon) dedicated to the heroes of Brazil. Niemeyer designed it to resemble a dove

I travelled to Brazil light, and took only a small pocketable camera, a Fuji Finepix F31fd 6.3Mp compact, still highly regarded and producing images that were almost as good as those from my current DSLR. The main limitation – and one that I found something of a problem was its lack of any real wide-angle view, with an equivalent of a 36-108mm zoom lens. It performed fairly well in low light with using the fairly useless built in flash and an excellent battery life.

Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro (National Theatre – Oscar Niemeyer)

You can see the pictures from my Brasilia show here and many more of the pictures I took in Brazilia at Pictures of Brasilia, though I think there are more I should put on line.

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Brasilia 2007

Cyclists protest. Critical Mass 10th anniversary, South Bank, London, April 2004.

Thirteen years ago in 2007 I was not in London but in Brasilia, where I had gone for the opening of my show on environmental protests in London, part of Foto Arte 2007, a huge photography event that stretches on for 3 months with over 20 international shows and more than a hundred individual and group shows from Brazil, apparently in 57 locations across the city. The theme of the festival was ‘Natureza, Meio Ambiente e Sustentabilidade‘ or in English, ‘Nature, The Environment and Sustainability’ and my contribution representing the UK was a set of 24 colour pictures of environmental protests in London – including a picture of Brazilians leading the last mile of a 1000 mile Christian Aid ‘Cut the Carbon’ march past Tower Bridge.

My work was in show in a local community centre in one of the ‘Quadra’ which make up the living quarters of the city around its central core. My show was backed by the British Embassy and they had also arranged for me to give a lecture – and provided simultaneous translation for my Portuguese speaking audience.

‘No Fumes Here’. World Naked Bike Ride, London, June 2006.

Because I was very aware of the planned nature of Brasilia, a new capital city built from scratch, which I described as “really the ultimate flowering of the modern movement in architecture and planning, planned by Lúcio Costa (1902-98) and with many buildings by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer, 100 on December 15, 2007 and still working” I had decided my talk would be about my own photographs around London and more generally about “the photography of the urban environment and some of the changing ideas in planning, and how the invention of the car had completely altered our cities. Ideas about Garden Cities at the end of the nineteenth century had been overtaken by urban sprawl.”

‘London Underwater 2050 Tour of the G8 Climate Criminals’, European Social Forum, London, October 2004.

During my stay I also got to see all the other shows then taking place, and also was treated to several of the finest restaurants in the city (including a lunch with the Ambassador and the director of the festival) and was taken around the various sites of the city – including the many Niemeyer buildings by a daughter of one of Costa’s team of planners. It was an exciting few days, though very stressful at times.

One of Niemeyer’s most famous buildings, the cathedral in Brasilia – Fuji FinePix F31fd

I’d known I would have a busy time with little chance for any serious photography and had taken with me just a small pocketable digital camera, a 6Mp Fuji FinePix F31fd, and used it as a notebook during my stay. A few of the almost a thousand pictures I took are on My London Diary, but there are many more which I now find of some interest, and perhaps I’ll upload more onto Flikr shortly.

Uncle Sam’ as the Grim Reaper in Trafalgar Square, Kyoto Climate March, London, February 2005

I wrote quite a few posts about the visit here on >Re:PHOTO, including brief review of some of the other exhibitions in Foto Arte 2007, starting with one just before I caught the plane, Foto Arte 2007 Brasilia with my full set of 24 pictures and continuing after I arrived home and into January 2008.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.