Voltaire Fraga’s poetic Bahia at Roberto Art Gallery
The exhibition gathers 36 images produced by one of the most important photographers from Bahia of all times
The Bahia-born photographer Voltaire Fraga produced some of the most delicate registers of a Bahia that no longer exists. His provocative view, between artistic and ethnographic, covered the many corners of Salvador, capturing its people’s daily life, their traditions and festivals, their spontaneity in the streets, their religious and cultural heritage. A part of this work can be seen between August 30th and September 9Th, at Roberto Alban Art Gallery, in Ondina. A rare opportunity to dive into the universe of one of Bahia’s most important photographers.
Between the 1930s and the 1960s, Voltaire Fraga moved around the city with his German Volkslander camera registering what touched his soul. That’s exactly why the photos produced, always in black and white, revealed an impressive stylistic and conceptual elegance. National recognition came with an exhibition carried out in 2009 at Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, whose curator was Diógenes Moura, which gathered around 100 photos by Fraga.
The current exhibition is curated by Dilson Midlej, PhD in Visual Arts and professor at UFBA’s Fine Arts School. Midlej highlights what he considers a differential in Voltaire Fraga’s work: "What distinguishes him is exactly his poetic view shown in his visual narratives, the thematic universe and the stylistic preferences that acquire shape through the resources made available by photography (framing, light, textures, filters, image blurring, etc)".
To get to the 36 photos that compose this exhibition, Midlej obeyed some criteria. The main one was selecting images to form the thematic groups of Voltaire’s work. In this perspective, the exhibition comprehends: 1. The water and bucolic regions of the city (Ribeira, Tororó Dam, Porto da Barra Beach, the saveiros at Modelo Market’s ramp, etc) 2. The city’s iconography: view of the Lower City with Lacerda Elevator, Castro Alves Square, Modelo Market, etc) 3. The festivals and the baianas and 4. The workers (vendors). "It’s in these two last groups that the concern with the transmission of dignifying humanistic values, impregnated in the social roles of the subjects of his photos stands out’, notes the curator.
He explains that Fraga is inserted in a quite comprehensive socio-economical ambit for practicing social photography (for favoring the social context as one of his main themes), conciliating it with personal projects. "His sensibility and technical expertise raised him to a level that distinguished him from the regular production of other photographers, even when he was working as a journalist or doing commercial works. Thus, his artistic vision conformed intrinsically with the resources of the photographic technique", says Midlej.
During his lifetime, Voltaire made only one exhibition in Salvador, in 1999, at 87 years old, and he always resented the lack of recognition for his art. At some point, he even thought of burning all his negatives, some of which were published on the central pages of the magazine O Cruzeiro, of national circulation.
There’s, therefore, the possibility of contemplating some pieces of the beautiful work left by Voltaire, exclusively represented by Roberto Alban Art Gallery. In this exhibition, named Voltaire Fraga, Hoje (entre o ontem e o amanhã), the 36 photos selected, with varied sizes, express some references that enchanted the photographer. They express, above all, his love for Bahia: the Bahia of simple people, striking buildings (many of them don’t exist anymore), prodigious nature and enchanting streets.
Exhibition: Voltaire Fraga, Hoje (entre o ontem e o amanhã)
Opening: August 29th 2019, at 8:00pm
Hours: August 30th 2019 to September 30th 2019 (Monday to Friday, 10:00am to 7:00pm; Saturdays, 10:00am to 1:00pm)
Venue: Roberto Alban Art Gallery
Address: Rua Senta Pua, 53, Ondina. Phone: + 55 71 3243-3982/ 3326-5633