以暴力、死亡、宗教和貧窮為隱喻，Miguel Rio Branco 的 Silent Book 描繪了扣人心弦的神秘拉丁世界。
With metaphors surrounding violence, death, religion and poverty, 'Silent Book' presents a compelling and mysterious portrait of the Latin world
Miguel Rio Branco Town of Cubatao, Brazil. 1992. © Miguel Rio Branco | Magnum Photos
In the early nineties, Brazilian photographer Miguel Rio Branco began using a square-format camera, a move that would have a significant effect on what he photographed and how. “[It] drove me into a more symbolic use of the images photographed and a more introverted view over the subject,” he says. He began treating the Santa Rosa boxing academy in Rio de Janeiro as his studio, applying his slow and considered approach to deconstructing his subject, the local boxers. However, the “real” subject he was exploring “was the area between body and soul – something fluid in the images,” he explains. Around this time, the photographer also photographed in the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Santiago de Compostela, all assignments which he says, “drew me into the Christian Latin world of prayer and martyrdom.”
九十年代初，巴西攝影師 Miguel Rio Branco 開始使用 Rolleiflex 雙眼相機，此舉對他的攝影內容和方式產生了重大影響。他說：「這使我對所拍攝的圖像進行更具象徵意義的處理，並對拍攝對象採取更加內向性的視角。」他開始將里約熱內盧的聖羅莎拳擊學院作為自己的工作室，採用緩慢而深思熟慮的方法來解構他的拍攝對象－－當地拳擊手。然而，他所探索的「真正」主題是**「身體與靈魂之間的區域－－在畫面中流動的某種東西」**，他解釋道。大約在這個時候，這位攝影師還在西班牙的 Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, 及 Santiago de Compostela 等城市進行了拍攝，他說，這些任務 「將我帶入了祈禱和殉道的基督教拉丁世界」。
These free assignments came at a time when the photographer was searching for something more. “The tradition of documentary photography was not interesting me at all,” he says, adding that he found inspiration in deconstructing his subjects and using them as vehicles to explore the fundamentals of life: “time, flesh, sexuality, decay, death and pain.” Rio Branco’s work abstracted the literal subjects he photographed to reference what he saw as bigger, more consuming matters. “A whole other world was being presented in the pictures as they were put out of their initial context,” he says.
這些自由的拍攝，是在攝影師尋找更多東西的時候完成的。他說：「紀實攝影的傳統對我完全沒有吸引力」他補充說，他在解構拍攝對象中找到了靈感，並將它們作為探索生命基本要素的載體：「時間、肉體、性、腐朽、死亡和痛苦」。Rio Branco 的作品將他拍攝的現實主題抽象化，以指向他認為更大、更吸引他熱情的存在。他說：「當照片脫離了最初的現實語境，一個全新的世界就呈現在眼前。」
Miguel Rio Branco Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1993. © Miguel Rio Branco | Magnum Photos
Miguel Rio Branco Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1993. © Miguel Rio Branco | Magnum Photos
Miguel Rio Branco Silent Book © Miguel Rio Branco | Magnum Photos
