{"id":47008,"date":"2022-06-07T14:26:20","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T17:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistazum.com.br\/?p=47008"},"modified":"2022-06-07T14:34:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T17:34:24","slug":"black-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistazum.com.br\/en\/revista-zum-22-2\/black-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Black power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Modelo na Semana da Consci\u00eancia Negra do Col\u00e9gio Estadual Odorico Tavares<\/em>, Salvador, 1998*<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A black man who records his peers with a camera is a conquest. The under representation of Brazilian Black art in collections, museums, galleries, festivals, exhibitions, publications, and curatorial projects is evidence that the work of white Brazilians continues to dominate the visual arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this Black guy is the son of a laundress and a docker \u2013 and he is happy to talk about his origins \u2013 and was born in Fazenda Grande do Retiro on the outskirts of Salvador, in the Todos os Santos bay, entering into the world of the arts is as challenging as organizing his artistic and political project. L\u00e1zaro Roberto dos Santos has included his work in the Zumv\u00ed Arquivo Afro Fotogr\u00e1fico [Zumv\u00ed Afro Photography Archive] since the 1990s. Starting with donations from personalities such as J\u00f4natas Concei\u00e7\u00e3o, an activist in the Movimento Negro Unificado [Unified Black Movement], Luiz Orlando, a researcher into Black cinema, and photographer Rog\u00e9rio Santos, the Zumv\u00ed today houses about 30,000 photographs from the collections of eight photographers. Two-thirds of them were taken by Roberto. They depict the work, daily life, the political and social struggles of the Black movement, popular and religious festivals, the remaining communities from quilombos<\/em> [rural communities originally founded by escaped African slaves] and Black aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The archive project is the result of the encouragement of militants Raimundo Monteiro and Aldemar Marques, who wanted to give visibility to the Black memory and history of Bahia and found in Roberto the ideal partner. When the two comrades left the project, it was up to Roberto to take it on. Aware of the relevance of the material, which was stored in precarious conditions, Roberto sought the help of his nephew, historian Jos\u00e9 Carlos Ferreira, who became executive producer of the archive. To bring Zumv\u00ed to life, they wrote a manifesto and went in search of institutional support. However, they were received with disdain at first and a series of bureaucratic barriers, as well as empty promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the project survives with the help of a few close supporters, public funding from open funding calls, and the hope of keeping alive the memory of the Black population through Black lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, Roberto was a member of a theater group set up by the progressive priest Paulo Maria Tonucci, who aimed at denouncing social misery, confront the military dictatorship and offer artistic and cultural training opportunities to the community of his local parish. There, at an annual arts festival, Roberto saw some photographs that immediately caught his attention. He began to take photographs using a camera borrowed from Geremias Mendes, responsible for recording the work of the group headed by Antonio Jorge Godi. Not knowing at that time what the future fate of these photographs of the neighborhood, of people, of parties, of demonstrations might be, he kept them so that the images of that period could be seen again in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His images expose the structural racism, either by portraying homeless Black people or responding to the growing intolerance against religions of African origin in Brazil \u2013 as in the picture of the young man with the poster \u201cExu is not the devil. Respect my (sacred) beliefs.\u201d Roberto\u2019s photographs contrast the harshness of life with the broad smiles which celebrate the festive ethos of the Black people. He avoids taking stereotyped images, which sell sinuous bodies and toned muscles, to show the subjective strength of Afro hairstyles and hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberto is a sweet, attentive and unwavering man. His modest demeanor does not hide the marks of past suffering, which he reverted into energy to absorb the Black world and present it in photographs. In our conversation, Roberto shares his references and the process of creating a look that reflects in the encounter with the other his Black people, whom he wants to cherish. With one eye on the past and another in the future, Roberto highlights the educational purpose he wants to achieve with his work at Zumv\u00ed. His voice enthusiastically reaffirms the militancy that flows in his blood, in the images he produces, in his body and in the look at the diaspora.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Foto no est\u00fadio para a s\u00e9rie Black Cards: cart\u00f5es-postais com negros<\/em>, Salvador, 1993<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

When did you realize that photography might be your artistic language?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was twenty years old and was taking part in the theater work of the Experimental Arts Group in Fazenda Grande do Retiro. They ran an annual festival for artists to show their work. There was an exhibition that year of the work of the filmmaker Antonio Olavo, who I came to meet only recently. They were images of canga\u00e7o<\/em> [banditry in the backwoods of northeastern Brazil], of sert\u00e3o<\/em> [the backwoods]. I have never seen those few black and white images again, but they had such a strong impact on me that I tried to find out how he had taken them and began to wish to become a photographer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was that how you made the leap from theater to photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. I immediately started to follow Geremias Mendes\u2019 work, my colleague in the group. He used to photograph the shows, our activities, and would lend me his camera sometimes. I started by photographing people in the neighborhood, the city\u2019s celebrations, our daily lives, until coming back from a trip, Antonio Godi, the group\u2019s director, brought me a camera he had bought abroad. It was my first camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how did you become a documentarist of the Black people and their history?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was then working in a printshop with Father Paulo Maria Tonucci and came into contact with some leaflets promoting the Movimento Negro<\/em> [Black Movement] which we were printing. The way I saw the world started to change and I realized that us, Black people, only saw ourselves in our ID photographs. I felt like doing something with photography to change this perspective. I didn\u2019t see any Black people with cameras. Moreover, I was interested in the political issues of the time and the situation of the country, and this included the invisibility of the Black population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n