As our Brazilian photography series continues, Ibsen Santos tells us about the beauty of the people of Salvador
While studying art at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), Ibsen Santos made a documentary about his neighbour. He simply spent one afternoon following her apparently banal and ordinary routine. Thus, his professor considered her a fascinating person and, in telling her all the compliments that the film received, Santos understood his role as an image maker. The tears of joy from his neighbour reflected how much she appreciated being heard and seen and made him realise the importance of showing others as they are. This became the conceptual axis of his production - all of us can inherently be a complex, peculiar figure, and worthy of the spotlight.
In this way, Santos’s work can be compared to the documental performance piece ‘Art Is...’ by American artist and critic Lorraine O'Grady, presented at the 1983 African-American Day Parade, in which intrigued spectators, who summarily saw themselves making art, or having art made from them, were invited to participate by framing themselves within golden frames.
“Coloniality was perverse in disposing of our identity. My aim as a photographer is to be able to highlight this beauty”
Even before his studies, photography emerged for Santos as an extension of his remarkable and vivid childhood. Between alleys, dirty streets and block walls, only the tastiest laughter could be heard in Lobato, a railway suburb of Salvador, Bahia where he grew up and lives to this day. His work channels his existence as a black gay man who lives in this place, discovering and revealing the world for those who do not know the outskirts. "People here have a magic and a vivacity that I've never encountered anywhere else and it's that I need to praise," he says.
What could be seen as a strategy to escape the Eurocentric pattern is, in fact, the driving force behind his practice. There is no other way. Faced with so many perspectives that only refer to a reality different from his own, he keeps his feet on the ground. Salvador for him has a plurality of skin tones, hair textures, sounds and smells and is undoubtedly an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
“Coloniality was perverse in disposing of our identity. My aim as a photographer is to be able to highlight this beauty,” Ibsen continues. “Not only the aesthetics but the beauty of being who we are here in the Global South. Our way of life and customs are to use the lush beaches of the lower town as a backdrop. The main purpose of my production is to decolonise the look and rewrite history with our hands. I always want to highlight our particularities.”
Having photography as an ally in the process of racial, social and gender self-recognition is what moves Santos as an artist. Besides each photograph, there is a responsibility with each individual portrayed to tell their stories, their pains and their disaffections. By promoting an area of protagonism that used to be Eurocentred, his photographs corrupt this whitish notion. "Photography has the power of influence, by pointing the camera at a neighbour of mine, they perceive themself important. They all have a name, a surname, and a story that needs to be shared."
Words Ode
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From Brazil, With Love And Optic Games is a Nataal series spearheaded by Ode, a São Paulo-based stylist, writer and independent curator. Brazil, which has the largest black population outside the African continent, is home to a new generation of young black photographers who are creating fresh perspectives on fashion and art. This series of interviews sees Ode explore how their work both expands ideas around representation and participation and challenges Western perspectives that ignore the Global South as part of black life and diasporic conversations
Read our other stories in this series here.
Published on 17/12/2020