The Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) in São Paulo will present until March 31, 2013, the exhibition As origens do fotojornalismo no Brasil : um olhar sobre O Cruzeiro (1940-1960) (The Origins of Brazilian Photojournalism: A Look at O Cruzeiro). More than 400 photographs and documents trace the history of Brazil’s premier 20th century illustrated magazine, O Cruzeiro.

The exhibition highlights the crucial role the magazine played in the development of photojournalism in Brazil. Its main theme is the relationship between the images as they were taken by the photographers and the way they appeared in the O Cruzeiro, focusing on the 1940 and 50s, a prolific period for the magazine.

Launched as a weekly “variety” magazine in 1928, O Cruzeiro quickly became one of the country’s most influential publications. It began publishing photo essays in the 1940s, becoming a pioneer of photojournalism. “The period of World War II was marked by profound social changes which brought ethical issues to the center of political debates in general, and in the world of photography in particular,” say the curator Helouise Costa of the Museum of Contemporary Art in São Paulo, and Sergio Burgi, coordinator of the IMS photography gallery. “One of the consequences was a struggle between two different conceptions of photojournalism [...] On one side, there were ‘hired’ journalists whose photographs had to meet the demands of the market and mass communication. On the other side were politically committed photographers, who believe their work should serve a cause.”

With the end of the Second World War, the collapse of the dictatorial regime in Brazil, and the opening up of the country’s politics made it possible to question the social role of photojournalism and its ethical limits. Brazil witnessed the advent of a more responsive and participatory form of photojournalism. Instead of “staged” and symbolic photographs, this form of photography was spontaneous and based of the principles of truth.

The exhibition examines the concept of photojournalism through several themes: indigenous peoples, the press, the art world, politics at the boundary between public and private life, photo essays (between news and fiction), and photojournalism (archive and memory).

Céline Chevallier

As origens do fotojornalismo no Brasil: um olhar sobre O Cruzeiro (1940-1960)
From November 23rd 2012 to March 31st 2013
Instituto Moreira Salles São Paulo
Rua Piauí, 844, 1º andar, Higienópolis
São Paulo - Brazil
Tel : 0055 11 3825-2560
Tuesday - Friday 1pm - 7pm
Saturday - Sunday 1pm - 6pm