‘The man from Glicerio’ by Matheus Leandro Barbosa shows Mark Anthony Gabriel,
Café Art, which connects homeless people with the wider community, has for the past three years focused its attentions on a London-based calendar.
Earlier this year, the 2015 ‘My London’ project went viral after Amateur Photographer‘s coverage triggered interest from as far afield as Hong Kong, Australia and Thailand. It was also covered by The Today Show in the US.
A subsequent Kickstarter campaign to fund printing costs stunned organisers after it unexpectedly raised more than £17,500 from over 850 backers.
Buoyed by the calendar’s success, Café Art director Paul Ryan this month travelled to São Paulo where he ran a similar project.
Ryan was part of a UK delegation with With One Voice – an organisation that works with Brazil’s arts and homelessness sector in the run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Launching the street photography project on the Café Art website, organisers said: ‘Following the success of our Kickstarter this year, Café Art had been inundated with requests for advice on running photography contests and calendars, and we are working with people from cities all over the world.’
The ‘My São Paulo’ mission saw 100 Fujifilm single-use film cameras handed to people affected by homelessness, with help from the UK’s Royal Photographic Society.
Participants were asked to photograph their city over two days, with the best photos to be chosen for an exhibition and calendar.
Among those who took part was Rudnei Barbosa, who took a photo called ‘Feet on the Ground’, of his feet and sandals on the street, to deliver a message.
Rudnei Barnosa told project organisers that the image ‘alludes to the Brazilian people, always dreaming… but to achieve your goals, you need to set aside the illusions and put your feet on the ground’.
‘Feet on the Ground’ by Rudnei Barbosa
Another photographer, Matheus Leandro Barbosa, took a portrait (above) of a homeless man sitting on a pavement in Glicério, an area of São Paulo known for its high number of homeless people.
‘The money raised here will go 100% to art projects run by homelessness-sector organisations in São Paulo,’ Café Art’s Paul Ryan told today.
‘While it was paid for by With One Voice and The People’s Palace Projects [charity], the money will go directly to the Brazilian projects.’
The calendar is set to be launched at the São Paulo Human Rights Festival on 10 December.
‘House without Window’ by Diogo Virolli
‘Corinthians’ Trolley’ by Dino José
Liberdade’s Reflection by Cristiano Vicente
