Text by Luis Perez-Oramas, Itamar Silva, David Kelley.
In many of Rio de Janeiro’s shanty towns, or favelas, the city’s housing authority, the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação (SMH), is enforcing policies to evict families and demolish their homes--often with little or no notice, and sometimes with use of force--in advance of construction for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Responding to news reports of these evictions, in late 2012 New York–based Marc Ohrem-Leclef (born 1971) set out to portray the people directly and indirectly affected by these evictions, and the residents organizing their neighbors in resistance to SMH’s abuse of power. Photographs of the subjects in their respective environments are complemented by portraits in which they hold an emergency flare, representing their ongoing struggle to avoid the destruction of their homes while using the core symbol of the Olympic Games, also a symbol of liberty and independence.
Featured image is reproduced from Marc Ohrem-Leclef: Olympic Favela.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
ARTnews
Cooper Arnie
Marc Ohrem-Leclef, whose photography book Olympic Favela (published by Damiani) features portraits of those threatened with eviction. In 2012 and again last year, the German-born, Brooklyn based photographer traveled with his medium-format camera through Rio's various (sometimes dangerous) favelas to document the impact on the local population of what officials call "pacification."
WWD
Lorna Koski
This volume looks at a different side of Brazilian life- it explores the favelas, where the poorest of the poor live in informal settlements with few amenities, from which they are being driven by officialdom as their country prepares for the Olympic Games. Ohrem- Leclef posed many of them with Olympic-esque emergency torches in their neighborhoods. Many of them are being paid to leave their neighborhoods or being pushed out less ceremoniously.
American Photo
Debbie Grossman
To prep for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, officals in Brazil ordered the destruction of large swaths of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, which more than a million people call home. This book document sthe displaced residents and their defiance, symobilized in emergency flames raised like anti-Olympic torches.
In the Introduction to his new book Olympic Favela, which documents the residents of Rio di Janiero's slums as they protest eviction by the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, photographer Marc Ohrem-Leclef writes, "These images juxtapose the dynamics of celebration and togetherness with those of struggle based on social-economic disparity, which the mega-events are bringing to Rio de Janeiro and its citizens. The people I met face extraordinary challenges: city officials who use ever-changing tactics to sow fear and insecurity to actively erode the sense of community; and lengthy, complicated legal disputes they must wage to avoid eviction and assert their rights to remain in the homes where they have grown up. Their firsthand accounts of their uphill battle, of the perseverance and ingenuity they employed to build their homes, and of the history of their communities—many residents we spoke with are third-generation residents of their neighborhoods—revealed the full breadth of their fears and underlined the need for their voices to be heard." continue to blog
Photographer Marc Ohrem-Leclef's new book, Olympic Favela, documents the proud residents of Rio di Janiero's slums as they protest eviction by the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. Essayist Itamar Silva writes, " In his photographs, Marc has captured faces and expressions revealing the plight of human beings under the menace of removal: their resistance, indignation, fear, and hope. Their eyes shine and interrogate. His pictures draw our attention to crucial questions of our time: What kind of city do we want? Which city model will prevail? Marc’s images are warnings, alerting us to what is happening here, in this place. Men, women, and children express their alegria to live here, their commitment to defend their homes here, and their resistance to the threat that hangs over them." continue to blog
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FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 12.25 in. / 88 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $67.5 ISBN: 9788862083386 PUBLISHER: Damiani AVAILABLE: 5/31/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Damiani. Text by Luis Perez-Oramas, Itamar Silva, David Kelley.
In many of Rio de Janeiro’s shanty towns, or favelas, the city’s housing authority, the Secretaria Municipal de Habitação (SMH), is enforcing policies to evict families and demolish their homes--often with little or no notice, and sometimes with use of force--in advance of construction for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Responding to news reports of these evictions, in late 2012 New York–based Marc Ohrem-Leclef (born 1971) set out to portray the people directly and indirectly affected by these evictions, and the residents organizing their neighbors in resistance to SMH’s abuse of power. Photographs of the subjects in their respective environments are complemented by portraits in which they hold an emergency flare, representing their ongoing struggle to avoid the destruction of their homes while using the core symbol of the Olympic Games, also a symbol of liberty and independence.
