Photojournalist George Love, the Brazilian landscape and the magazine Realidade

Abstract

The american photographer George Love (Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA 1937 - died in São Paulo, Brazil, 1995) worked between 1966and 1971 for the magazine Realidade ("Reality", ed. Abril) and was responsible for remarkable reports that were real landmarks in Brazilian journalism. He started photographing sports and daily subjects, but involved himself in environmental matters which led him several times to the Amazon basin.Realidade magazine devoted an special issue to Amazon region in October 1971. He afterwards released two books on this theme: Amazonia (ed. Praxis, 1978), co-authoring the photographer Claudia Andujar, and Alma e Luz: sobre a bacia amazonica (Soul and Light: about the amazon basin) (ed. MD, 1995). He also edited a book about São Paulo: anotações (São Paulo, sketchbooks) (ed. Eletropaulo, 1982). Despite that, we know little about him and his working methods.The Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP) is his principal collector, and where George Love organized exhibitions and workshops, has in its prestigious Pirelli collection (devoted to photography), only 16 of his photographs. The Abril editors, who edited Realidade have no originals by his contributors, as they paid only for the used material.Love returned to USA in 1987 with his personal archives and it happened that he was in São Paulo for a short stay, when he died. His material, together with his family´s papers were donated in 2003 fot the J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, from the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte.We aim to examine this collection, whose list follows below, searching his photographs and other materials, for the post doctorate research. This collection, housed in 6 cubic meters boxes, were never really examined in depth, and analyzing it is important to verify Love´s contribution to Brazilian photography and to environmental documentation. (AU)