The soundtrack of these photographs could be a Happy Birthday with cake and laughter or the great successes of James Brown and Michael Jackson who in the seventies and eighties triumphed in the records of half the planet. And also in the dances black in Aglomerado da Serra, the largest favela in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). The neighbors posed at that time for the photographers Afonso Pimenta, 64, and João Mendes, 69, with the confidence one has with the neighbor who runs the corner store. There continues Photo Mendes. And therein lies the magic.
Far from the cliché of misery and violence that outsiders tend to spread, the Retratistas do Morro project has rescued thousands of negative negatives to show this poor neighborhood as its neighbors see it, with that pretty face that we all put on in front of the mirror. The protagonists look directly at the target. Moments of happiness documented by two photographers from the favela —he had 14 portrait artists— with the solemnity that photos represented when they could not be repeated and one had to wait to reveal them.
Posing in the studio during the end of the year was a classic, and an effort for many pockets. But behind the smile of that girl dressed in pink Barbie with a mortarboard and lipstick, there was a proud mother who thought that preschool diploma seemed like a degree. If the family couldn’t pay, they would settle the matter later, when they could, if they could.
“I remember that I called Afonso to take this photo of me,” says Terezina da Paixão Santos, who poses with her baby. “The Teresa in the photo is the happiest Teresa in the world! The prince had just come into my life. I lived in this three-room shack with 12 children. And that white blouse was one of the best I had”.
Outside the frame, Brazil was a dictatorship and street dances were prohibited, as they are now. When a scout posted at the top warned that the police were coming to the favela, the disc jockey played one of Tim Maia’s. The party is over. They all knew it was time to go.
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