It is hard to be a saint in São Paulo : the street photography of Peter Buchan
What was it Bruce Springsteen sang? Something about Jesus in the streets? About him emerging from the noise and the fury of the city?
His is a thought-provoking portfolio. An often abstract, often enigmatic photographic collection speared with shades of colour, shadow and light. I am referring to Brazilian street photographer Peter Buchan, not Springsteen or Jesus.
From the favela of Paraisópolis (Paradise City) to Morumbi, from Vila Madalena to Levanta Saia, most of his photographs have been taken in this super-megacity of 12.5 million souls – which climbs to 21.5 million in greater São Paulo.
This great Brazilian behemoth in the south of the country, 270 miles from Rio De Janeiro and Christ the Redeemer, is his home
“I started photography after studying graphic design,” Buchan, whose father migrated to Brazil from Dundee, Scotland, told me. “I learned about colours and compositions in illustrations and arts. I bought a camera, a Lomo Diana F+ to just make compositions for my illustrations and art. It opened a door to the world of photography in my life. I started everyday taking photographs, I went from the Lomo to an iPhone taking photos of everything, abstract, street, still life, portraits.”
Here in this fascinating mix of Portuguese colonial and contemporary architecture, poverty, wealth and Paulistanos, who tell you Non ducor duco – ‘I am not led, I lead’ – he shoots.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Buchan
A woman, neatly framed, head down on the streets of São Paulo, walking on a Zebra crossing. A white taxi to her right as we stare and, of course, in the corner of the photograph looking down on the scene is the Madonna. Perhaps she is blessing the city with her enigmatic beatific smile, a subtle, thin parting of her lips.
A beautiful image, a great abstract, near psychedelic mix of the real, the symbolic and the ordinary.
“São Paulo, is a really fast, busy and exciting city,” Peter tells me enthusiastically. “I think the city inspires me…as I walk in the streets with my camera. I can be myself in the chaos of so many people. People walking, busy, running, screaming in all directions.”
That noise, that fury?
“It’s sometimes hard to fix your eyes on a subject with so many things happening,” he continues. “But It is also a meditation to be in such a chaotic environment and I look for beauty. In a strange way that brings me peace.
“I like to feel where I am, as São Paulo is not the safest place to be walking with a camera. I have to decide if I wait in the place, or walk. Sometimes I like to walk if it’s a new place I don’t know. If I know the place I like to wait and be with the people in the scene and feel the street as one.”
It conjures up a magnificent image for any street photographer, to be at one with the street and all its human traffic, all its structures and shadows and its remarkable beauty, religiosity laced with that edge of potential danger.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Buchan
A small, though sturdy looking man peers out in the direction of the photographer, his large spectacles emphasise his look, his glance, his stare. What is he thinking from within his kiosk?
Well, maybe he thinks : ‘What is he doing? Him, with the camera! Is he pointing it at me?’
“It was a sunny day,” Peter remembered. “It was hot and I was on my way to work, I see this man with the large spectacles and walk straight to him shooting with the camera, I thought if he sees me first, I will lose the scene the way it is, with no smile and no posing.”
Buchan feels his city, he knows and understands it like we know and understand our own bodies. He feels it rushing in on him as he, in turn, attempts to impose himself on it.
Where did this all start?
“I did a Little workshop of photography in São Paulo in 2014,” the street photographer explained. “Where I was introduced to all the greatest… Henri Cartier Bresson, Alex Webb, Koudelka, Ernst Haas and I love it.
“Then I bought a Fujifilm camera XE1 and started to study books and then I was doing street photography every day in the morning and afternoon after work. The streets did teach me all I know about photography. I really feel free to be who I am as an artist in the streets.”
It is a profound statement. He meditates in the chaos of the giant metropolis, and only experiences freedom when he is creating art on the streets, which, in many ways – and disagree if you like – is, for me, an almost perfect definition of street photography.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Buchan
Is crossing a theme, a metaphor in Peter Buchan’s work? Are we always crossing from point A to point B, here to there, child to grown-up, life to death?
An old man – backlit – with a stick crosses a deserted city street, in what could be a metaphor for the journey we all take from child to adult and then, of course, to our final march toward whatever God we might, or might not, hold dear to ourselves. In this most religious of places, São Paulo has five cathedrals and countless churches and about 60 per cent of its 12.5 million residents (7.5 million) declare themselves Roman Catholics, we feel a sense of time and space and light and shade, of concrete and glass, flesh and blood, hope and despair, magical realism, Jesus with a camera and street photography.
Perhaps the old man crossing the street is headed to church to pray for the soul of his city?
Copyright ⓒ Peter Buchan
Peter Buchan’s work intrigues and I particularly like this photograph, the light, the beautiful holy green colour, the magical reality of the man in silhouette, the strange pattern of black and green stripes, the colour coordinated crates on the right-hand side of the photograph. All delivered into one frame of photography.
But notice also that the man is walking in the opposite direction to the arrow sign at the top of the photograph.
Is he crossing, but, this time, in the wrong direction? So, what could that possibly indicate? What could that possibly mean?
“This was the first day I took more than 15 shots in one scene,” Peter revealed. “I really worked the scene for this photograph. It is near my neighbourhood where I used to walk to work. Never have seen that place with such a green wall, was always gray and with graffiti. So, this day I see the green wall from a distance, and I went there to see if there was a good scene. It was a busy alley.
“So, I had to make the shadow play with the people walking, and at first I took a lot of photos and I thought it was missing something in the composition. Then I see the metal fence at my back, so I decided to use that to make the composition more abstract. Then it all came together. I did 30 shots in different ways. Luck sometimes is on our side?”
I like his work, it resonates with and is, in its own way, an exploration of this sprawling, chaotic, exciting city.
Copyright ⓒ Peter Buchan
“What attracted me to street photography as a graphic designer,” he told me simply. “Was the way I could mix my illustrations and photography as compositions and colours in the real world, real scenes, real people, real colours. And this is where it all came together in the streets.”
Copyright ⓒ Peter Buchan
He turns away, his hands wrapped around his camera, observing, looking, waiting…
*Peter Buchan uses a pocket Fujifilm XF10 fixed lens 18.55mm. For everyday and street photography he uses a Fujifilm XE3 with a 16mm f/2.8 lens all carried ina Domke weather sealed shoulder bag.
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