Brasilia

I visited the Brazilian seat of government over the summer and spent two days with my eye behind my camera desperately trying to document as many of the landmark buildings that I could. I got up early both days and walked until it was mid-evening, still taking pictures when it was dark.

My entire reason for visiting the city was to see the buildings. I was a dedicated tourist following a map and guide book faithfully. The act of taking a picture of something ingrains that framed view into your memory so that on reviewing the images the other memories seem to fade in comparison, and only those recorded on your camera are left. What remains is a mediated experience of the city where the truth is distorted by various mechanisms.

I had seen images of the architecture of the city all around the country, most notably in a Niemeyer exhibition in Sao Paulo, but also at the bus terminals on adverts for destinations. Interestingly though, other cities like Belo Horizonte and Niteroi near Rio presented themselves more emphatically as architectural destinations leaving Brasilia as the more sedate enigmatic capital that lay deep in Brazil’s interior. The image of the city was used as a brand for the country though, where silhouettes of the architecture were adopted for company logos and t-shirts.

As an attempt to distill my experience I have constructed a narrative which is as much the diary of a flanuer as it is trying to be Tschumi’s Manhattan Transcripts. It is my record of the city which was combined with a mapping exercise. To see the full image visit my blog:

www.petemcmahon.wordpress.com