Art critic Wilson Coutinho weaves an analysis of the photographic work of Miguel Rio Branco, stating that the artist works with the idea of the “unproductive economy,” since his photographs focus on the economically marginalized sector of the population. The writer describes the perspective on the economy shown by this photographer born in Spain, which amounts to an “anthropology of his surroundings.” Coutinho regards this as related to the photographer’s “camera obscura, the inverted image” (working on the limits of the positivism of economy) based on the way the photographer digs down into this theme. The essay is divided into several sections: “The Banal,” identified as one of the veins the photographer seeks to mine; “The Pose”; “Decay”; and “Color,” in which social maneuvers and sexual games arise as factors that are disturbing and confrontational.

The philosophy professor and art critic Wilson Coutinho (1947−2003) graduated from the Université de Louvain with a thesis on the work of Nietzsche. As a journalist, he served as editor of Segundo Caderno O Globo. For a short time, he was also the curator at Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio), and helped bring an exhibition of Camille Claudel’s works to this museum. He worked in RioArte in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro and at the State Ministry of Culture, where he published three book series: Perfis do Rio, Cantos do Rio, and Areias do Rio. In this essay, Coutinho came to emphasize two striking aspects of the work: its surprising points of departure starting with “The Banal,” and the importance of “Color” in his work.

Miguel Rio Branco (b. 1946) is a photographer, filmmaker, painter, and has created multimedia installations. He studied at the New York Institute of Photography (1966), working as a photographer and director of experimental films in the Big Apple (1970–72). In the following decade, he worked on short films, including documentaries with strong social and political statements. With the passage of time, Rio Branco was recognized as one of Brazil’s best photojournalists working in color. In 1982, in Paris, he shared the first prize with two colleagues in the competition known as the Kodak Critics’s Award. He currently works and lives in Rio de Janeiro.