Claudia Andujar: Flora
Claudia Andujar is one of the great names of photography in Brazil, where she settled in 1955 after a decade of refuge in the United States. Born in Switzerland and raised in Romania, Claudia migrated to escape the war. She arrived in Brazil without knowing the language and turned to photography as a means of expression.
Traveling through Brazil and other countries with her Rolleiflex, she quickly made numerous connections, and her photographs were published in various national and international media. However, in the 1970s, she devoted herself almost entirely to documenting the Yanomami people, leaving São Paulo to live between the states of Roraima and Amazonas.
Her documentary work led her to become personally involved in the Yanomami struggle for recognition and land rights, eventually founding the Pró-Yanomami NGO. Having worked for a long time with Realidade magazine, Claudia produced numerous reports on the Amazonia and built an extensive archive on the forest peoples, particularly the Yanomami.
In 2018, the exhibition The Yanomami Struggle finally reached the public. Featuring over three hundred photographs, it showcased an impressive range of technical and experimental diversity, along with drawings made by the communities themselves. The exhibition debuted in São Paulo and has since traveled to other cities worldwide. Personally, it was a very impactful experience.
Now, thanks to an initiative by Casa Seva, in partnership with Galeria Vermelho and curated by Ana Carolina Ralston, the exhibition Claudia Andujar: Flora is open to the public until April 12. This small yet beautiful exhibition presents ten photographs originally published in Realidade magazine as part of a series on the Amazonia. According to the curator, the goal was to “enchant readers and emphasize the necessary care for a region haunted by the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway and immense environmental devastation.”
For Ralston, the exhibition remains true to Andujar’s purpose: “to captivate the eye toward preservation.”
The exhibit is divided into two spaces. The first features large cotton paper prints highlighting some of Andujar’s most distinctive techniques, such as the use of colored filters and sequential photography of the same subject from slightly different angles, creating a sense of movement. In this section, the triptych Mourera aspera—a Brazilian aquatic plant—exemplifies the motion between frames that Andujar sought in her experimental work.
In a separate room, three photographs are projected onto fabric. Accompanied by sounds of the forest, this setup creates a fluid exhibition space that immerses visitors in images from the 1970s. On the fabric, the images blend into one another.
It would be an overstatement to claim that this space attempts to recreate an Amazonian forest inside a climate-controlled room in downtown São Paulo. However, this immersive phase of the exhibition transports Andujar’s photos to another dimension—if that were even possible—amplifying her call for the Amazon and its people.
It is a pleasure to witness yet another glimpse of the forest’s beauty through the lens of one of Brazil’s most renowned photographers. For those in São Paulo, the exhibition at Casa Seva is a must-see.
Exhibition Claudia Andujar: Flora
Curator: Ana Carolina Ralston
Location: Casa Seva
Closing date: April 12, 2025