Internationally acclaimed photojournalist Evandro Teixeira, was born in Jequie, Bahia, Brazil, on December 25, 1935. He originally wanted to be a sculptor and briefly an aviator, but as a teenager, a photo essay in the ground-breaking Brazilian magazine, "O Cruzeiro" made him decide to become a photographer. He studied in a nearby town with Ze Medeiros, a top-ranking Brazilian photo-journalist of "O Cruzeiro", the Brazilian version of “Life”. He also took a course offered by a French magazine in 1957.
After a brief period in Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, like many others from Brazil’s Northeast, he migrated internally to Rio de Janeiro, then the capital, working for "Diario da Noite", until the early 1970's. Starting as an apprentice he went on to cover weddings, then Carnival and other major stories such as the first arrival of a Soviet ship in Rio de Janeiro. After a brief period at the weekly "O Mundo" he went to work for the top Carioca newspaper, "Jornal do Brazil" for 47 years, until the paper suspended publication in print in August, 2010. The paper plays a major role in the Academy Award-nominated film Cidade de Deus. It is there that the protagonist, Buscape, starts his photography career. Evandro's last position was Photography Editor. The Funarte (Barzil’s National Foundation for the Arts) states that he “Became a mythical figure in national photojournalism”. During his career he has covered and continues to cover major stories, domestic and international, in all areas including the Pan American games, the Peruvian earthquake of the '70's, the Jamestown massacre, the Brazilian coup d'etat of 1964, the fall of Allende, the death of Pablo Neruda, World Cups, Olympic Games, (including in Athens and China), fashion, "Society", Popes, heads of state, artists, entertainers as well as ordinary people. He is the official photographer of Brazilian Presidents.
Evandro’s work has been exhibited in museums, foundations, and galleries throughout Brazil, and major cities worldwide including Boston, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Havana, New York, Paris, Zurich, and elsewhere. In 2000, his work was included in Leica’s global traveling exhibit, "Magic Moments II". It is in the permanent collections of numerous institutions including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Harvard University Art Museum, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, Museu de Arte Contemporanea, Sao Paulo, Museum of Fine Arts (Kunsthaus) Zurich, Museo de Arte Moderna La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, among others. He is the photographer and or subject of more than 7 major books including the "Evandro Teixeira - Fotojornalismo", 1982, "Canudos 100 Anos", 1997.
He figures figures prominently in magazines in Brazil and abroad, including, "Photo" (France), "7", and "Harper’s Bazaar", (Italy), "Leica Magazine", Germany, and the "Swiss Photography Review" and in anthologies including "A Song to Reality", Lunwerg Editores, Spain, 1998. Among his numerous awards are one from Nikon, 1975, and Unesco, in 1993.
This legendary figure continues to work tirelessly, adapting to new technology, but always with the speed, perception and grace that record for the present and posterity the quintessential moments, ridiculous and sublime, of his and our times.
Martha Takayama, Tepper Takayama Fine Arts
For more information on Evandro Teixeria visit:
Evandro Teixeira: Fotojornalismo
Adorocinema
Academia Brasileira de Cinema
Carlos Drummond de Andrade in front of Evandro
Poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade
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