On The Road - EXT #13

Orlando Azevedo - Açores

by MAP

Orlando Azevedo was born in 1949 on Terceira Island, Azores (Portugal). He has lived in Brazil since 1963. He graduated in law, but built a career marked by documentary photography and major authorial expeditions. Based in Curitiba, he also works as an editor, curator, and creator of long-term projects, using the heteronyms Yury Andropov and Jacob Bensabat in series on different themes.

He is the creator of the Heart of Brazil Expedition (1999–2002), a project that traveled 70,000 km across the country and gave rise to the trilogy Man, Earth, and Myth, as well as spin-offs such as Heart of Paraná (2005–2006) and Paranaguá, Lagamar (2011–2012). His works are part of the collections of prestigious institutions such as the International Center of Photography (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), MASP, and Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Curitiba).

He was director of Visual Arts in Curitiba between 1994 and 1998, where he worked as a curator. He created the City of Curitiba International Photography Biennial and conceived the City of Curitiba Photography Museum. He has published more than a dozen books, including Mestiço – Retrato do Brasil (2019), Augusto Weiss 1890/1990 (2017), Expedição Coração do Brasil – Paranaguá, Lagamar (2012), and Iguaçu (2002).

Recognized nationally and internationally, he has received awards such as Talento do Paraná (2003) and Prêmio Cultura e Divulgação Cidade de Curitiba (2007), in addition to being a global finalist among Portuguese artists living abroad. Between 2014 and 2018, he created the Visceral Photography course and began organizing his vast collection, which brings together around 160,000 analog matrices and more than 300,000 digital images. His work, diverse and with a strong humanistic character, constitutes one of the most comprehensive and sensitive records of the Brazilian landscape and identity.

Orlando Azevedo reveals to EXT photo magazine (EXT) that he finds pleasure in all dimensions of his craft, defining himself as a “full-time photographer.” Critical of the current trivialization of the image, he laments the lack of visual culture and the distance between photography and its true poetic and musical roots. He cites references such as Cristina García Rodero, Mário Cravo Neto, Sebastião Salgado, Josef Koudelka, and Henri Cartier- Bresson as examples of what he considers authentic photography.

Regarding the importance of books, he notes that the Brazilian photography market is still limited and economically challenging, but considers the photography book to be the most enduring medium for disseminating a work, even in the face of high production costs. He states that “you don’t get rich with photography,” but that the book is what remains. He is currently working on raising funds to launch two new books, “Antonina, Capelista” and “Açores, Divino Espírito Santo,” both of which are finished and seeking funding through the Rouanet Law.

Among his most representative works, he cites Lagamar as a milestone and Mestiço – Retrato do Brasil as his most personal achievement, a finalist for the Jabuti Award. The latter, he says, synthesizes his skill for portraiture and his search for complicity and truth in his relationship with the photographed. After Mestiço, he released Cósmica and remains committed to publishing his next books, staying true to his trajectory of dedication and artistic intensity.

www.orlandoazevedo.com.br

EXT photo magazine #13

Link to online interview on YouTube.

Orlando Azevedo on EXT.