Brazilian first colors
DAVID DREW ZINGG (1923-2000) Born in Montclair, USA, David Zingg attended Columbia University, where he would later teach journalism. He was a reporter and photographer for Look Magazine and had alread worked for other American publications such as Life, Esquire and Vogue when he came to Rio de Janeiro for the first time, in 1959. His “discovery” of Brazilian culture happened in a unusual way, as his whole trajectory in the country would become since that: he was part of the crew on the yacht Ondine, which was participating in a boat race from Buenos Aires to Rio, and the trip ended, magically, during the Carnival days. Zingg then began traveling regularly between USA and Brazil until decide to left behind his American life definitely. His articles on Brazilian events, including the construction of Brasília, were published in American and British magazines. He became close friend of a large number of artists and was known as the perfect model of "bon vivant". He was there for the opening night of Show de Bossa Nova, starring Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes at the nightclub Au Bon Gourmet, and helped to organize the famous show Bossa Nova Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, in 1962.
Caetano Veloso (cover of the LP Caetano Veloso) (1968) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Chico Buarque - cover of LP Chico Buarque de Hollanda - volume 2 (1967) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
On the background: Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and Catacumba favela.
The Catacumba favela no longer exists. The removal of its population of about 6,000 people integrated a large project of "des-favelização" of the Southern Zone, which begun in the 1940s and whose boom was the end of the 1960s, during the military dictatorship. The inhabitants of Praia do Pinto and Ilha das Dragas, also in Lagoa, Largo da Memória, in Leblon, and Morro do Pasmado, in Botafogo, despite the fact that many of them have jobs in the region, were also forced to relocate. In the early 1970s these areas were already completely clean out of irregular occupations and their former residents living in distant housing complexes, which in a short time would become favelas.
After being reforested, the favela area was transformed into the Catacumba Park. In its surroundings, in the fringes of the lagoon, several luxury buildings appeared and now compose the urban landscape.
Vinicius de Moraes (1965 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Vinicius de Moraes, Pixinguinha, Dorival Caymmi and Baden Powell (1965 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Pixinguinha (1967) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
David Zingg debuted in the press as a reporter. He was one of Look's editors between 1953 and 1958, when he decided to become a photographer. He already had published then some of the best photographers in the world - as he have declared -, so he quickly established a style, allowing himself to experience, for example, the slow shooting, adding dynamism to his portraits. In this period, while in Brazil the printing industry was still in its infancy, the American press was using the color photography in large scale.
Pixinguinha and João da Baiana (1967) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Musicians and composers Almirante, Pixinguinha, João da Baiana and Donga (1967) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Pixinguinha (1960s) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Pelé (1966) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Pelé (1966) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Zingg formed with George Love and Lew Parrella the set of North American photographers that pointed out ways for definitive changes in Brazilian photojournalism. Working in Realidade magazine in the 1960s, they incorporated into the practices of this publication, one of the most read of the period, procedures and approaches unknow by the local press professionals untill that moment.
From left to right, from the head of the table, in the foreground: Nelson Pereira dos Santos (polo shirt); Ruy Guerra (beard); Joaquim Pedro de Andrade; Walter Lima Jr. (wearing glasses, with a pack of cigarettes in his hand); Zelito Viana (wearing glasses, with a cigarrete in his hand); Luiz Carlos Barreto (with a pack of cigarettes in his hand); Glauber Rocha; Leon Hirszman. (1967 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
João Guimarães Rosa at the Itamaraty Palace (1964 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Oscar Niemeyer at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasilia (1964 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
March of One Hundred Thousand (1968) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
The One Hundred Thousand March took place in Rio de Janeiro in June 1968. It served as part of the military dictatorship's justifications to promulgate Institutional Law Number 5 (AI-5), opening the way to the regime's hardest moment. AI-5 was in force until December 1978. March of one hundred thousand
March of One Hundred Thousand (1968) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
March of One Hundred Thousand (1968) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Leila Diniz (1971) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
“Photography is history,” David Zingg wrote, “and that is its fundamental function. The machine shows the present day to those who wish to see the present day. But it also shows yesterday to those who wish to learn. …It seems to me that the duty of a photographer in Brazil is to press on in registering suffering and pleasure, the beautiful and the ironic. Only time and the public will decide the meaning that photographs truly hold.”
Leila Diniz (1971) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
“Fotografia é história, e é essa sua função fundamental. A máquina mostra os dias de hoje àqueles que queiram ver os dias de hoje. Mas a máquina também mostra o ontem àqueles que queiram aprender. (…). O dever de um fotógrafo no Brasil, me parece, é insistir no registro do sofrimento e do prazer, do belo e do irônico. Só o tempo e o público decidirão o significado que as fotografias realmente têm.”
David Zingg
Aerial view of Paulista Avenue (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Aerial view of the city of São Paulo with Edifício Copan on the left (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Elke Maravilha (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Elke Maravilha (1975) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Elke Maravilha (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade, soccer player Tostão, at the time of qualifying for the World Cup in Mexico (1969) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
David Zingg worked with some of the most important magazines in Brazil – Manchete, Veja, Realidade, Claudia, Playboy, Quatro Rodas and Isto É – as well as Brazil’s leading newspapers and was director of photography on the film Memórias de Helena, directed by David Neves (1968). In 1978 he moved to São Paulo, working as consultant and writer for the Folha de S. Paulo and penning the column “Tio Dave” (Uncle Dave) from 1987 to 2000. Zingg also took part in the hard rock band Joelho de Porco, notorious for its humorous lyrics.
Vinicius de Moraes and Dorival Caymmi (1970s) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Baden Powell (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Hermeto Pascoal (1973 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Juscelino Kubitschek (1971) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Samba Scholl drumming section (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
"In 1958 I was editor and one of the three or four people who headed Look magazine. Then one fine day a friend of mine invited me to make a boat race from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro. I arrived in Rio and was amazed. It was carnival season."
Samba Scholl wing (1970 decade) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Bus Station (1970 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Gilberto Gil, cover of the LP "Moonlight - We need to see the moonlight" (1981) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Image on image
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, David Zingg used his free time between commissioned trips to produce photographic essays with elements of urban iconography, almost always popular, in various parts of Brazil and abroad.The common element to all these images are the subvertion of posters, signs, banners and various types of inscription´s original sense, constantly remembering how noisy - simultaneously poetic, bizarre, lyrical, funny, melancholic - has become the human visual panorama since the advent of "modernity". The four photos of this sequence are part of the exhibition David Drew Zingg: Image on image, held by IMS in 2015. The show specifically explored the graphic series, where Zingg experimented at the threshold of the color blow up.
Adverts (1980 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Drugstore (1985 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Signaling (1985 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
Self-portrait of David Zingg (1982 circa) by David Drew Zingg Instituto Moreira Salles
David Drew Zingg died on July 28th, 2000, in São Paulo. His collection, comprising over 150,000 photographs (mainly color slides), documents and personal items, was passed on to the Instituto Moreira Salles in 2012, following an agreement with his descendants.
David Drew Zingg - the color in the modern Brazilian photojournalism
Edition: Rachel Rezende
David Drew Zingg: Image on image
Curation: Tiago Mesquita
Bibliography
Brazil is not for beginners: Lew Parrella, George Love and David Zingg, American photographers in the Realidade magazine (1966-1968)
Guia do IMS - Cadão Volpato. Tradução Flora Thomson-DeVeaux.
Acknowledgements: Ângelo Manjabosco, Joanna Balabram and Thaiane Koppe
