Matt Frost, Sao Paulo I: Looking out towards Avenida Paulist...

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£200 - £300

Matt Frost, Sao Paulo I: Looking out towards Avenida Paulista, historically a commercial hub and one of the most densely developed parts of the city it has one of the most impressive skylines. In the foreground is Edificio Coban, an iconic residential block of flats designed by Oscar Niemeyer. With Avenida Paulista in the background and people walking along the Coban building you get to see a unique perspective and sense of scale of this City, the series is 25 photographs of which 8 have been printed. Each have each a print run of 10. Giclée prints on Hahnemühle Pearl 508 x 356 mm paper (20 x 14”), actual image size 485 x 324 mm, frame 510 x 710 x 21 mm


Sao Paulo:

The sheer scale of Sao Paulo is intimidating & proved to be a captivating subject for me. With a population of 18 million people & once the fastest growing city in the world it, was hailed as a ‘prototype of future urban development’ & in the early 20th century, embodied economic effectiveness, extraordinary impressiveness with unparalleled dynamism & ambition.
The cityscape is dominated by hundreds of generic high-rise blocks that seem to stretch on endlessly in repetition, lacking coherence in their appearance or size. The drive to modernize & grow led to an uncontrollable & disorganized regime of development; with skyscrapers springing up “overnight like mushrooms”, as observed by famed modernist architect Walter Gropius.
Over the last 90 years, the financial centre has shifted three times & despite ongoing growth, political unrest in the latter part of the 20th century led many to believe that the city was dying. This perception is reflected in the skyline, now scattered with unused and decaying buildings.

To me Sao Paulo’s skyline resembles a patchwork quilt of patterns, shapes & colours. As humans, we are inherently drawn to these elements. Recognizing this, I sought to incorporate these not only to achieve an alternative aesthetic but also to establish order & an identity within this chaotic megacity. While its development may have been haphazard, I wanted to uncover a personal aesthetic & I hope represent the grandeur of a city perpetually evolving, yet tied by the remnants of a tumultuous past. Sao Paulo stands as a testament to its dynamically ambitious nature.

Having been mugged at gun point in Rio and my hire car broken into in Brazillia, I was running low on cameras when I finally got to Sao Paulo; luckily my final destination. I couldn’t be so snap happy as I would have liked, but undeterred (& overly cautious) I carried my camera, (a Sony Alpha AR7 II with Metabones adapter with my Nikon 50mm lens) in a green plastic bag along with a banana & water bottle. Although I looked like a “gringo” there’s a lot of Gringo’s in Sao Paulo. The Favella’s are also on the outskirts & there’s more risk with organised crime rather than petty street shenanigans - such as in Rio. So I was told.
I AirB&B’d an apartment in the Jardins district, very close to one of Sao Paulo’s major streets; Avenida Paulista in the heart of the city’s skyline & close to the areas I wanted to investigate. It truly is an amazing city and I loved my time there. The atmosphere hits you. The deep purple night sky and the constant hum consumes you.