IN EXHIBITION
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Ways of Seeing and Appropriating
A boy stares into the camera, his gaze denouncing the arbitrariness of the situation. He is Black and, captured in the foreground, fixes his eyes on the photographer’s lens. Behind him, well-dressed men in suits and dark sunglasses appear to shield themselves from the rain, protected under their wet umbrellas.
They turn their bodies and eyes away as if there were no photographer there to immortalize them in such a scene. The context is the inauguration of the paving of Aníbal Benévolo Street, with the mayor in attendance—naturally taking center stage. The boy, however, seemingly detached from what must have been a performance of power, disrupts the ritual and the hidden mechanisms of this staging. Even unintentionally, he exposes and dismantles the theater of politics.
Another scene. Three children interact with a “young tree.” The image was taken during a ceremony marking Tree Week in 1968, at the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship. The photographer, likely inattentive to the young subjects, failed in his artistic direction: while one of them fulfilled the role expected of him, the girl turned sideways, visibly confused, and the boy on the far right appeared shy. All of them seem indifferent to the authorities posed just above them.
These and other images make up the material collected and “appropriated” by the artist Maria Vaz, who alters the “intention” of the original photograph by manipulating the light. In doing so, she generates a new meaning that reshapes our ways of seeing—both individually and collectively.
Maria also highlights the presence of those who seem to have been born to remain in the background, at least when we consider the reach of images crafted by those in power. Children—who may appear in the photos, but never influence them.
These images, therefore, resound powerfully and meaningfully in the hands of researcher and visual artist Maria Vaz. Memory is one of her central themes and inspirations, and she works with both private and public archives—as is the case in the exhibition Ilustríssimos. In this show, the photographer revisits the presence of children captured in visual records from the Public Archive of the City of Belo Horizonte—an administrative archive, created and indexed by the city’s own public administration. As such, it is ostensibly and deliberately organized, with each record bearing the name of some authority figure.
Yet the children elude control, slipping away from ritualistic framing. Maria Vaz, by casting light on scenes meant to be merely secondary—if not entirely erased—subverts the notion of who is deemed “illustrious.” The children are the illustrious ones. And, in some way, so are we, as we recognize ourselves in them.
Lilia M. Schwarcz
Most Illustrious, 2021-23
Among the many glances taken at the more than 12,000 photographs from Belo Horizonte’s (capital city of Minas Gerais state, in Brazil) public archives, one type of image stands out: the presence of children at political events, whether in the city hall or external: inaugurations, celebrations, the signing of laws, among other solemnities. This presence serves as a “humanization” of those in power, of the politics. The collection - not unlike so many other official archives - has been created, catalogued, and preserved for the benefit of a city in constant “progress”, highlighting certain themes and certain events - there are almost no records of popular demonstrations and almost none without the illustrious presence of a ruler. Nevertheless, a more careful search reveals a presence that doesn’t strike a pose, inattentive when it wants to be and sometimes attentive to what no one seems to notice, admittedly - and comically - bored or curious, a presence that doesn’t actively participate in the very politics that make it illustrious. The children are, in fact, most of the time unaccompanied by their mothers, lent for a brief and solemn participation. Thus, I decided to highlight it. To highlight this subtle presence, but full of agency. And highlight their recurrence, which is still commonly used today for political propaganda.
The light game inverts the illustrious position, highlighting another game, which is always in dispute: the political one.
PUBLICATION - Photothings Prize 2023
Photos: Maria Vaz
Texts: Ioana Mallo, Maria Vaz e Marly Porto
Project: Alyssa Ohno
Translation: Cello Sawczuk
Portuguese and English
Weight: 0.3 kg
Dimensions: 15 × 19 cm
Binding: paperback
40 pages
Publisher: Porto de Cultura
ISBN: 978-65-85769-00-6
1ª Edition
50 copies
Year: 2023, São Paulo (Brasil)
The series Ilustríssimos by the Minas Gerais–born photographer Maria Vaz is a meticulous, long-term project.
After copying more than 12,000 photographs from the public archive of Belo Horizonte, the artist spent six years observing this immense collection of images. Over those years, her path of observation unfolded at different rhythms—sometimes alone, sometimes in dialogue with other artists—first for a specific research project, and later “just” drifting aimlessly. Through these currents, her sharp gaze caught a common and compelling thread: images of children at political events.
These are the classic kinds of events: the inauguration of a public building, a document signing at city hall, a presentation, a speech. Events typically led by white men, with almost no female presence, held in environments ill-suited to childhood, yet which require the presence of children to “humanize” the message.
In this positivist archive, the artist keenly perceived the entire staging constructed around the children. And in her artistic process, she reversed the roles, bringing the children to the forefront. In the background, she veils or erases the official actors in the image, and in the foreground, she highlights the children—those whom no one at the time seemed to notice. And so, years later, we find ourselves in dialogue with these children who now come to life and gain presence through nothing more than a play of light. Without posing or staging, they appear in their full humanity: distracted, making faces, bored, or curious about something beyond the frame. Through her artistic gesture, they become illustrious—beyond the original propagandistic intent of the image, of which they were likely unaware.
Maria, both artist and researcher, delves deeply into the investigation of the gaze. The archival images are part of the official discourse of their time, published in newspapers and magazines, where the presence of children served as political promotion linked to the nation’s future. This discourse, in fact, remains very much in force today, in Brazil and around the world.
In her work of recovering memory, Maria brings forth new narratives and meanings, offering us another way to look at our history. She raises questions about our future: how do we want to see our children, and how do we want to represent them? By mixing times and perspectives, realities and imaginaries, Maria dismantles the supposedly irrefutable and factual nature of official discourse and, by focusing on the child’s image, offers us a sense of freedom. From the solemn, she shifts the focus to the playful; from control, to the accidental. With humor—but also with a clear awareness of the gravity of her themes—she places in opposition values that are dear to the patriarchal order. And we, as viewers and readers, are invited to pry open the cracks revealed by the artist and to build a different memory about the role of childhood—in images and in society.
Ioanna Melo
Exhibitions:
2024: Pierre Verger Photography Prize - Salvador, BA.
2024: Salão Anapolino de Artes - Anápoles, GO
2024: Itajaí Arts Salon , SC
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