Sandra Cattaneo Adorno: Águas de Ouro
Sandra Cattaneo Adorno: Águas de Ouro
In her latest monograph, Sandra Cattaneo Adorno explores the unique character of Rio de Janeiro through images that combine moments of street photography with abstract, lyrical compositions. Adorno’s photographs emphasize the human body which, isolated and transformed by the strong golden light, contrasts against the natural beauty of Rio’s beaches and acquires a symbolic dimension.
As a result, Adorno’s beguiling images not only capture people and moments with visual maturity and acuity but also evoke something quintessential about the city, something a little darker: the bittersweet yearning that Brazilians call Saudade, which hints at other levels of reality, the invisible ones of poetry and magic.
Printed in innovative metallic gold ink and silver four-color, Sandra’s new book, Águas de Ouro, published by Radius Books, celebrates the light of Rio de Janeiro through images that combine moments of street photography with abstract, lyrical compositions.
Sandra’s photographs emphasize the human body which, isolated and transformed by the strong golden light, contrasts against the natural beauty of Rio’s Ipanema beach.
About the Author
Sandra Cattaneo Adorno started photographing six years ago, at the age of 60 and has since garnered extensive recognition for her work including a commendation from the Sony Awards (show at Somerset House, London 2016).
She has exhibited at the American Illustration /American Photography 2017 Awards in New York, and the Independent Photography 2017 show in Berlin; she was also shortlisted for the first round of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. In 2018, Adorno received the PDN Exposure Award, and her work was projected at the Kaunas Photo Festival, shown at the first New York Women Street Photographers exhibition, at the Miami Street Photography Festival, at Photoville in Brooklyn. In 2019, she showed at Miami Photo Fest and Street Photo Milano and was selected as one of the winners of AI-AP Latin American Fotografia 8.
Her work won the Portrait of Humanity Award 2019 in collaboration with Magnum Photos and was included in the related book published by Hoxton Mini Press. In 2020, Adorno was awarded an honorable mention in three categories in the 15th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, and she was selected for the Women Street Photographers exhibition in Russia. Adorno’s photographs have been printed in Eyeshot Magazine, Ageist, and the Guardian. Her first book, The Other Half of the Sky was published in 2019.
