Brazil by Olaf Heine

"Curves make up the entire Universe," Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil's star architect, once said. Photographer and director Olaf Heine met the legendary architect shortly before his death. Since 2010, the renowned portrait and fashion photographer has been tracing the soul of Brazil, showcasing its sensual joy of life with a keen sense of forms and textures.

In his newly revised photo book "Brazil," Heine contrasts the Brazilian landscape and architecture with the curves of its people – surfers, dancers, and beautiful women. He deliberately avoids stereotypical colors, offering an unusual black-and-white perspective on Brazil. But Heine is not only interested in the richness of curves in architecture and bodies but also in their continuation in life: Everything is flexible and in constant motion. From the intensity of desire to the lightness of forms, Olaf Heine shows us a fascinating country in all its diversity, beauty, and melancholy.

In his works, Heine depicts the longed-for place that the first generation of Brazilian modernists created in architecture, literature, and music in the mid-20th century as an aesthetic expression of a social, political, and urban society undergoing positive changes. A wishful thinking and supposed utopia that many people look back on with nostalgia, especially in the current context.

The coffee-table book "Brazil" is the epitome of Brazilian "saudade," the longing and yearning for the tropical beauty of nature, vibrant cities, and unique people. For all Brazil enthusiasts, this illustrated book is a wonderful gift to repeatedly immerse themselves in the country and its optimistic lifestyle, free from clichés.

With texts by Oscar Niemeyer, Ruy Castro, Marcelo Camelo, and Matthias Harder.