描述
Tudo Bom 2022 #33 by Alex Majoli
#SCENE7171
BRAZIL. 2022. São Paulo.
Inside the occupation of a building in Rua Augusta organized by FLM (Front of Fighting for Housing).
100 families are occupying and living in an abandoned building in the center of Sao Paulo.
According to an estimate carried out last year by the city’s Office of Social Assistance and Development, the number of people experiencing homelessness on the streets of São Paulo grew from 24,344 in 2019 to almost 31,884 in the 2021 – an increase of 31%, exacerbated by the socio-economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As in other expensive metropolises, the pandemic’s financial impact in São Paulo hit hard. Many families, including families with children, were evicted from their homes. The census showed that the number of people claiming to be living on the street in family groups was also up by 8.6%, accounting for 30% of the current homeless population.
Percentage of the photo goes to FLM
Throughout my career as a documentary photographer, I have experimented with multidisciplinary approaches to add novel layers of analysis to traditional documentary photography. My artistic practice has primarily been driven by the theories of innovative intellectuals representing the fields of psychology, neuroscience, literature, and, increasingly with time, by the art of theater, with a focus on Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. In particular, this is what triggered me to undertake further research on the theater of everyday life. I realized that we all play a part. We wear masks that accommodate fixed societal roles, and in that way, we exist trapped in our own play—here we are, relentlessly acting ourselves. A key to understanding our complex reality, then, could be to acknowledge and question the meaning of the theatrical elements that have constructed its play, our core societal narrative.
Contributing a continuation to the Brazilian body of work included in TUDO BOM, the photographs will retain the DNA of photojournalism—in the strict sense of providing content regarding the current events, but will bring into play an aesthetic that highlights what roles the various characters in this crucial chapter of contemporary history have been assigned, and how they are building particular narratives that shape different groups’ understanding of the issue.
Edition: 1 of 1
Commissioned by Obscura