Magnum Blog / A conversation with Miguel Rio Branco

A conversation with Miguel Rio Branco

Today we launch a new series of conversations with various Magnum photographers. For our first conversation we invited Jörg M. Colberg, founder and editor of the fine-art photography blog Conscientious and experienced interviewer, to talk to Magnum photographer Miguel Rio Branco about his work and photography. This conversation is cross-published at Jörg's own blog. I hope you enjoy the read and please let us know what you think.

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© Miguel Rio Branco/Magnum Photos Jörg Colberg: When people hear "Magnum" I think many of them will think of classic b/w photojournalism. With its use of often very vibrant colour, your work clearly doesn't fall into that category. Now colour photography has been widely accepted, but it hasn't always been this way. Was using colour an obvious choice for you? And since you have a background as a director of photography for movies I'm wondering how much that also contributed to your development of your own photographic style? Miguel Rio Branco: Today it is possible that when people hear Magnum they are not anymore seeing just traditional black and white, since there are already some members using color in an expressive way for some time, and also I see that Magnum is growing into a dynamic creative force with many individual paths and not only in the traditional photojournalistic way. My own work was never only about color since after painting, in the beginning I did most of the time both, black and white and color, as well as experimental films (New York 1970-72). What happened is that in 1980, while living in São Paulo, my archives burned, and what was left were mostly the color slides that were traveling with me . And my color, when I look at it now, I see it as not being really very colorful. Most were monocromatic, with some red and sometimes some blues here and there. Never the whole rainbow. One of the things that shows is that there is a dramatic use of color, and this relates a lot to my painting background. But painting is not only the background since I am still painting again since the mid eighties . The other link is with cinema and music. I was never really aware of the big names in photography until 1974, and this after already six years of using photography as my main medium. I lived in New York from 1970 to 1972, and never saw one exhibition of photography; my contacts were mostly with artists and movie people. So my influences came definitely from painting and cinema. The act of editing came from the audiovisuals that I did at the time, the framing from the movie camera, the not cropping afterwards came from that situation as well as the lack of many verticals. So my photographic style is basically a non-linear style, which depends very much on the construction of the images, the poetic links created with the images, and not with a linear aspect of framing and use of light and color.

Bob Black

that he recovered from the destruction of most of his life’s work (the B/W) stuff is enough to point (at least for me) how we should indeed consider and reconcile ourselves to what we all too often think of as the “importance” of our work and all that…

dont agree with all he said, but have always admired his individuality his “monochromtic” gorgeous color and the strength and perspective after all that burned in sao paolo….and his boxer has always stuck inside me like a blunt instrument from one of my own nightwaking dreams….profound, gorgeous and hypnotic, just as the sadness of our waking lives…..

he sings the light as the light sings inside our wobbly and ache drunk bodies...

thank you

bob black

Paul Treacy

Write a book, Bob. I'll read it. Sometimes you baffle me with your words but I do like to linger amongst them none the less.
Best,
Paulyman.

Alessandro

Ideas, ideals, thoughts and their expression through visions create a divergent pathway ahead. If emotional and cultural emptiness permeate photography, the medium looses solidity and drops into the common degeneration that we experience every day in daily newspapers.

Art needs thought to be, otherwise it is simply commercial speculative rubbish.

nigel amies

Nice to see someone challenging the orthodoxy of photojournalism and of Magnum. I'd never heard of this guy.

Lea Kast

I have not really known miguel rio brancos work but was happy to be introduced through this interesting interview. His use of color is absolutely poetic. Very strong images!

Kevin Leonardo

I'm very clearful about what you call fine art photograpy and photojournalism differences. I'm really agree with Miguel Rio's view and conceptions about what he does. I have never watched his work, but after this great interview, I'll go directly to watch his photographs.

Greetings from Venezuela.
Kevin.

mahmood

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Sheikh Rajibul Islam

Plz Visit my web link and give your the comment.

Smit

Great interview. I'll have to fave this blog. I also go to the Myartspace Blog to read interviews there, but photographers are few and far between.

Caydis

Very nice composition and perfect exposure for such a shot. Bravo!

máara

Is a great interview, is fascinating work of Rio Branco

dR

"To me Art is a question of: first, having something to say from the inside that has nothing to do with description of reality, reality being just the material thing that the camera captures."

Yes... some truth here.

And at the extreme sense, the camera then becoming just an instrument to facilitate what you want to express, the subjects a vehicle to carry forth your urge to show and to create... the images much more about you than them.