Next upcoming exhibition.

I'm taking part in the 8th Greenwich Annuale with work from my Honduras and Costa Rica projects. None of the shown photos have been exhibited before.

The exhibition runs from the 3rd to the 16th of August at the Greenwich Gallery

Another project I was privileged to work with while in Brazil, was Casa de Santa Ana in Cidade de Deus, or City of God as the community became known throughout Europe and the USA after the success of the movie City of God that left most of the world believing that City of God was a place of young people, drug lords, drugs, parties and sex.

Casa de Santa Ana is a day centre for the elderly buzzing with activities. The house offers medical support, activities, food, and a space where people can meet, be together and feel at home. I visited Casa de Santa Ana several times over a period of 2 months.

If you like to know more about the project, please click here.

While working in Brazil I visited the Iracambi project in Minas Gerais. My first visit to Iracambi was some years back and since I had returned on different occasions. This time I spend a week on the property working with the founders, staff and volunteers to develop a visual profile of the Iracambi project. Iracambi have set themselves the target to create a space where farming and reforestation co-exist. One part of  Iracambi is an NGO working with volunteers who come from around the world and do all kinds of work and research in the forest and streams. The reforestation project is an integral part of the property and over the years the Mata Atlantica, the Atlantic Rainforest, has successfully re-grown bringing along a great diversity of flora, fauna and much needed drinking water. Now that the first target is reached and the forest regrown on the property, Iracambi work with the local farmers, land owners and surrounding National Parks to encourage reforestation and create a migration belt allowing the Atlantic Rainforest to slowly stretch across the region, connecting from one property to the next. If you would like to learn more about the project please click on this link.

Between projects and while walking along the beaches and public places in Rio de Janeiro I could not help noticing the beautiful orange uniforms worn by the street cleaners. The “gari”, the street cleaners, work for Comlurb, the company that uses a bright orange as the brand colour for their employees' uniforms. The many "gari", men and women working for Comlurb keep Rio and its beaches tidy. Many of the women, especially the younger women, seemed to take good care of their looks, were done up nicely and look very pretty as a result. Spending time in the streets I started talking to some of them, and found out how much pride these women take in their job.

“Not everyone can work for Comlurb. You have to take part in a ‘concurso’, a public test, and only the best get selected." “It is a good job. We work for the council and have all our working rights guaranteed.” ”We get a lot of respect from the public.” ... were some of the comment they made. And when I mentioned that I thought they had done themselves up very nicely, some replied: “You have to make an effort, don’t you?”

Barely back from Costa Rica, where I spent Christmas and the beginning of the year documenting the coffee harvest and family farming, beginning of March I left town again to work in Brazil on several documentary projects over the period of three months.

Visiting Rio de Janeiro for the first time after the World Cup, I was curious whether I would notice any significant changes to the city. The first thing I noticed was the strong police presence in the streets of the so-called Zona Sul, the more touristy neighbourhoods. Having grown up in Brazil during the military dictatorship, I am used to the presence of armed police and security guards. But then ... I could not remember seeing so many police in the streets. In March, at the end of the Brazilian summer, the police seemed to be everywhere. Here a police car parked on a corner, there riding on the horses, on the beach, on bikes ... wherever I looked, I noticed the presence of the Military Police (the police force that patrols the streets). Curious, I went out to meet them and learn more about who they are and how the Military Police are organised ...

Paraty, Brazil, 2015. Cacique and son, Kariri-Xocó.

Meeting the chief Pawanã Crody Kariri Xocó and his son in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. A group of the Kariri-Xocó who are originally from the state of Alagoas in the Northeast of Brazil had come to Rio de Janeiro state to introduce the wider public to their traditional culture and continued struggle for survival. Today the Kariri-Xocó survive in a mixed community which includes members from various surviving indigenous ethnicities and quilombos from the Northeast.

Paraty, Brazil, 2015. Cacique Pawanã, Kariri-Xocó, indigenous nation from Alagoas.

This photo was taken while meeting some of the members from the Kariri-Xocó in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro. The Kariri-Xocó are from the northeast of Brazil and live in the state of Alagoas. Some of their members travel around Brazil to introduce the general public to their culture and continued struggle for survival. The name Kariri-Xocó was adopted some 100 years ago when the Xocó, who found themselves driven off their land by invading farmers, sought refuge with the Kariri on the other side of the river to survive. Today the Kariri-Xocó survive as an impoverished community which also includes survivors from other indigenous tribes and quilombos.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2013. Street performance in celebration of Saint George Day.

In celebration of Saint George Day, a group of street performers re-enacted the story of Saint George in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Walking through the streets in the old part of the city centre the actors got a lot of attention from the local population.

London, England, 2015. London deconstruction.

Following up on my earlier observations about Changing Shanghai I could not help but notice that London is undergoing a similar process. From the East to the city to the West, buildings are being taken down and it is difficult to walk through the city without hearing the by-now all too familiar sound of mechanical noise that alerts us to demolition and construction.

Villa Alianza, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2013. Nanko Geerdines van Buuren.

Always interested to get involved with another human rights project, I first met Nanko in 2008 while living in Brazil. Since, a visit to the IBISS projects in the 'Zona Norte'  was a regular on my agenda when in Rio de Janeiro. For many years I teamed up with Nanko and followed him into the remote and poor areas of Zona Norte, many of which continue dominated by the drug lords. It was a shock to learn about his death while back in Rio de Janeiro. He will be missed dearly.

Great news, the exhibition at the Artisan has been extended to run until 13 March 2015. You have another week to see Working Women at the Artisan in Ealing.

The exhibition runs from Sat 14 Feb–6 Mar 2015 @ Artisan in Ealing, 32 New Broadway, Ealing, London W5 2XA

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30am-5:30pm, Sat  8:30am-5:30pm, Sun  9:00am-5:30pm

The multi-cultural newspaper The Prisma published an article about my photography and projects in both, English and Spanish.

Here are the links to the newspaper article

English:
www.theprisma.co.uk/2015/02/28/angelika-berndt-and-the-invisible-culture/

Castellano:
www.theprisma.co.uk/es/2015/02/28/angelika-berndt-y-la-cultura-invisible/
 

From Saturday 14 February 2015 a selection of photos from my project Working Women will be exhibited at Artisan. The presented photos are  part of an ongoing project to photographically research and document traditional processes in Latin America. In Working Women I look at the roles women’s work plays in society and economy. In my work I focus on photographing what I call the “invisible” culture, i.e. aspects of culture that manifest themselves in day-to-day moments and the working life.

The exhibition runs from Sat 14 Feb–6 Mar 2015 @ Artisan in Ealing, 32 New Broadway, Ealing, London W5 2XA

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30am-5:30pm, Sat  8:30am-5:30pm, Sun  9:00am-5:30pm