Rio Branco photographed two kids doing capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that includes elements of acrobatics and dance, performed to music. Rio Branco printed the photographs with strong light contrast, which makes the kids’ bodies stand out against the background. Notice how they balance and reach! Rio Branco called this series Blue Tango. Tango is a type of dance done with a partner. Look at the sequence of images to see how the action between the partners unfolds.
2022
Gallery label from 2022
In 1979 Rio Branco, a photographer and filmmaker, began to document the denizens of Pelourinho, a neighborhood in the historic district of Salvador, Brazil, that had fallen into disrepair during the 1970s. “I went into the zona,” he writes, “making portraits of the people there, which gave me passage into hell.” To create this grid of twenty prints, Rio Branco photographed two boys on the streets of Pelourinho as they practiced capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art that is also a form of dance. He used a bluish tint and backlighting to create a cinematic atmosphere that heightens the drama of the boys’ choreographed gestures and silhouetted bodies.
Provenance
Unconfirmed date, Galería Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo
1997, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas
2017, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Explore more
From MoMA Design Store
Licensing
Artwork or archival images
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
Audio and film clips
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.
Text from a publication or the archives
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.