Latincollector is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in New York of photographer Andre Cypriano from Brazil. The show will include black & white photographs from his series Ilha Grande, of which a monograph will be published in spring 2008.

Cypriano’s relationship with Ilha Grande has been brewing since the eighties when he first visited the island. In 1993 he returned to document the last months of “The Devil’s Caldron,” Brazil’s most infamous penitentiary during the military dictatorship – later demolished in 1994. Cypriano’s photographs depicting the rawness of daily life there was documented in “O Caldeirao do Diabo” published by Cosac & Naify (2001), which earned him numerous awards and led him to subsequently photograph over 30 favelas in Rio de Janeiro and Caracas.

Departing from the intensity of prior series Cypriano gives us an inside look into this exotic hideaway, which reads like a diary where he records his encounters with the beauty and characters of Ilha Grande. Despite the shift in subject matter, Cypriano is again looking to show the hidden aspects of human nature and these works remain emblematic of a type of social photography where the total involvement of the author with his subject is clear.

Poignantly natural portraits, desolate beaches and lush jungles, possess an unmistakable intimacy that transmits the earthiness of life on Ilha Grande. His rhapsodically sensual odes to lovemaking, nature and the female body are shot with natural light, mostly outdoors and without any creative arrangements or props. Cypriano’s compositions are rendered in exquisitely refined grays and give us his observations in a direct and unembellished manner. The absence that fills these pictures raises environmental concerns in a wise yet lighthearted manner and the notion that sexuality and the life force are synonymous, lies at the heart of Ilha Grande.

Andre Cypriano has had numerous solo exhibitions in Brazil, the US and Belgium. He has participated in group exhibitions at Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, Brazil; VIII & X International Architectural Venice Biennale, Italy; Palau de La Virreina, Barcelona, Spain; National Geographic Society, Washington DC, USA; Photokina, Cologne, Germany and Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela. He has published several books including: The Devil’s Caldron (Cosac & Naify, 2001); Favelas Upgrading (La Biennale di Venezia – VIII Mostra Int. D’ Arquitettura, 2002); Rocinha (Editoras Senac, 2005); Informal City: Caracas Case (Prestel, 2005); Quilombolas (Aori, 2006). His work is included in important public and private collections and he is the recipient of prizes from the All Roads Photography Program from National Geographic Society (2005), Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany (2003) and Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography (1999), amongst others. For further information or press materials, please contact Monica Espinel at 212-334-7813 or [email protected]