German Lorca

GERMAN LORCA, MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY 
German Lorca was one of the few photographers to fully experience photography in its most diverse modalities: from amateur to professional, from analog to digital, and from cameras to smartphones. With a peculiar vision of the most diverse themes, he uniquely established his language.

At the end of the 1940s, Lorca accompanied a new movement—the dawn of a modern aesthetic in Brazilian photography. He joined Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club), in São Paulo, now the subject of international study for his avant-garde. With a unique look, capable of combining photography and art—unlike conventional pictorial photography—in his long artistic career of more than 70 years, German Lorca has always been free when taking photographs. Unafraid of criticism, he remained true to himself.

When modern photography gained momentum and revolutionized the Brazilian scene, Lorca stood out with his cuts and framing, both in the photo capture and in the development process. He went through a so-called “concrete” phase during the concrete movement in the 1950s. He explored unusual planes and different angles, but Lorca's “concretism” was not exactly intentional; it was free and generated beautiful works. 

In advertising photography, he was a pioneer. Incessantly looking for new things, with audacious chromatic searches, bold angles, and irreverent and provocative themes, he conquered the advertising market, which was starting in Brazil. 

With a restless look, he took advantage of his rare moments of intermission to make official records, always getting the best angle of the scene that his gaze chose. With a recognized trajectory, both nationally and internationally, he never stopped. He continued with his watchful eye, forming generations of photographers who were inspired not only by his technique, but also by his emotional way of looking at the world. They called him Master. Always timeless, he continued taking photos until the last days of his extraordinary life. We see that when observing his work, our gaze rests between the real and the imaginary. Each moment is an accomplice-moment.

Adriana Rede e José Henrique F. Lorca
Curators

It's not an exaggeration to call him a master. With this latest achievement by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, “German Lorca, Master of Photography”, MON confirms its vocation of, among other artistic aspects, collecting and exhibiting photos, bringing them to our immense and interested viewing public.

Award-winning Brazilian photographer German Lorca dedicated most of his almost 100 years (1922-2021) to recording with his cameras scenes, scenes, and characters that could only have been discovered by him. 

He printed his mark on everything he did, revealing innovative images, which made his work unmistakable. He broke the limits of photography by masterfully using shadow and light techniques, always seeking new and different framings.

This exhibition is a testimony to decades immortalized thanks to his sensitive vision. His unique perception of revealing everyday scenes unusually has elevated him to the category of photographer-artist. 

His work has been included in the most important collections in the world, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), among many others. Here at MON, seven of his photographs are part of the Museum’s permanent collection, enriching our collection.

The exhibition “German Lorca, Mestre da Fotografia” (“German Lorca, Master of Photography”) takes us to travel in time and space. They are genius images that have poetry, that touch and inspire, and that allow a silent dialogue with each visitor. Reflecting and admiring is the aim.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
Diretora-presidente do Museu Oscar Niemeyer 

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is considered one of the most important museums in the world. It features works from the 1940s and 1950s by German Lorca and two from the iconic Aeroporto (Airport) series from the 1960s. Being part of MoMA's collection of notable photographers marks German Lorca's recognition in the context of world art.

In March 2021, the museum held a large exhibition focusing on Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club), an essential training center for Brazilian photographers, attended by German Lorca in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Lorca's works were a major highlight of the exhibition.

Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (Bandeirante Photo Cine Club), created in São Paulo in 1939, was extremely significant for disseminating information about the technique and training of amateur and professional photographers. Between 1949 and 1952, German Lorca attended the club. There, he broke the rules of traditional photography, gaining prominence among the participants. Both in the photographic excursions promoted by the group and in the exhibitions he participated in, Lorca's irreverent and innovative images stood out. They were a counterpoint to the existing pictorial construction.

German Lorca was a pioneer in introducing a new visuality to Brazilian photography. He explored and tried unusual plans and different angles.

In addition to the figurative images, which sought the personality of the person portrayed—or who created them—he often gave an expressionist character to the photography. At other times, he looked for abstraction in his images. He flirted with informal Concretism, which was in vogue in the 1950s and 1960s. Cuts and framing, both when capturing the photo and when developing it, showed that, in his laboratory, he used innovative and difficult-to-manage artisanal techniques.

Lorca was enchanted by the computer and, together with an assistant, tested the infinite possibilities of recreating the images, changing the cut, texture, and highlighting, especially, the colors. There was one image in particular that struck him. In a swimming pool, he found an inflatable mattress on a sunny morning. His keen eyes noticed that the total lack of wind and movement created a perfect moment: it seemed as if the mattress was floating in the air and the water did not exist. He took the image but felt that the colors didn't match the magic of the moment. Later, with the studio assistant, he changed the image until arriving at the famous final version: “Levitação na Piscina” (“Levitation in the Pool”). This is how he decided to rescue his old colored images and produce new ones.

German Lorca loved New York. He was there several times, and in three of them (1967, 1978, and 1984), he portrayed in black and white, faithfully, with his keen eye, the figures that represented the city, sometimes with its main symbols as a background. He managed to create a very significant panel of different types of New Yorkers: children, young people, many elderly people, and even tourists—a great social mosaic of characters from one of the main cities in the United States.

The year was 2014. German Lorca, aged 92, had to remain secluded in his home due to a small health issue. Creative and restless as he always was, he found a way, sitting next to the living room window, to record the sunlight and the shapes and shadows it caused as it entered through the cracks and the curtains. The result is a beautiful shoot done with his Digital Leica —a true study on light and environment that he poetically named A Geometria das Sombras (Geometry of Shadows).

German Lorca impresses us and overlaps past and present. Invited in 2018, after completing 70 years of his career, to document again some locations of his iconic photos of the city of São Paulo, he surprises us with the same mastery. At 96 years old, he faces the challenge, climbs the slope, and looks for the same angles. In the image he made on the Fourth Centenary of São Paulo's anniversary, at the inauguration of Ibirapuera Park, with his grandmother and son walking towards the OCA building like abductees in a spaceship, he finds the same magic again. He photographs, more than 60 years later, his niece and his young son, capturing the same emotion.

In the 1950s, with the arrival of car manufacturers in Brazil, a large advertising market began to emerge. The large consumer goods department stores were also investing. Lorca combined his experimental freedom with curiosity about techniques for researching new things and generating impactful images for ads. By freezing moving scenes using new electronic flashes, Lorca generated innovative and distinctive advertising images. Just like in authorial images, in commercial photography, the artist always makes the perception of magic present. That's why he was so sought after by agencies—something new to Brazil—and he grew with them.