Miguel Rio Branco spent his childhood in Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil and the United States. He has variously been a painter, a photographer and a filmmaker. His first painting exhibition was in Bern in 1974, while he was living in Switzerland. Two years later, he moved to New York, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts, continued to paint, and took a one-month vocational course at the New York Institute of Photography. In 1978, he continued his studies in Rio de Janeiro, at the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial, before launching into a career in photography and film. He is a member of Magnum Photos from 1980.
Rio Branco was a freelance photographer and director of photography for movies when he embarked on documentary photography and was soon noticed for the dramatic quality of his color work. Fascinated by places of strong contrast, in the power of tropical colors and light, he made Brazil his main area of exploration.
Rio Branco’s fascination with the material power of images continued with Nakta in 1996, a book exploring the theme of bestiary in man and animal, which marked a move away from a documentary approach. He followed this with a visual and poetic project fueled by a happy encounter with Louis Calaferte’s poem Nuit Close, a collaboration that won the Prix du Livre Photo in Arles. Silent Book, published in 1997, presents tableaux of bodies and spaces affected by time; decrepitude is magnified by the light, ageing, and death haunt the work through earthy, bluey and blood red colors. Some of the limited-edition large prints presented in the renowned Silent Book are available here.
Miguel Rio Branco photographs are included in many international collections of photography, including New York's the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Exhibitions (Selected)
2005 Plaisir la douleur – Maison européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
2004/05 Gritos Surdos – Galeria Milan Antonio, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France
2003 Door in Darkness – Aperture’s Burden Gallery, New York, USA
2002 Objetos Diretos – Galeria Paulo Fernandes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2001/05 Nakta – Galeries Fnac Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Toulouse, France; Paris, France
2001 Gritos Surdos – Centro Portugueses de Fotografia, Porto, Portugal
2000 Door into Darkness – Hellenic American Union, Athens, Greece
2000 Pele do Tempo – Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2000/04 Beauty the Beast – William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut,
USA; Art Institute of Boston, USA; Haggerty Museum of Art,
Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA
1999/01 Entre los Ojos – Fundacion La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain; Fundacion La Caixa, Palma de Majorque, Spain; Centro Insular de Culura, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain; Sala de Exposiciones Alameda, Malaga, Spain; Colexio de Fonseca, Santiago de Compostella, Spain, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, Spain
1997/98 Nakta – D’Amelio Terras Gallery, New York, USA; Galleria Oliva Arauna, Madrid, Spain; Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1993/96 Out of Nowhere – Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany; IFA Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
1993 Bestiario – Centro de estudios Romulo Gallegos, Caracas, Venezuela
1991 Petites réflexions sur une certaine bestialité – Rencontres d’Arles, France
1988 Suadouro – Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, France
1987 Coraçao espelho da carne – Fotoptica, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1985 Coeur miroir de la chair – galerie Magnum, Paris, France
1974 Photographs – Galeria Grupo B, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(Selected)
2019 Maldicidade, Taschen Books
2018 New York Sketches. Xavier Barral
2009 Out of Nowhere, Luste
2005 Plaisir la douleur, éditions Textuel, France
2002 Entre os Olhos, o Deserto, Cosac & Naify, Brazil
2002 Gritos Surdos, Centro Portugues de Fotografia, Portugal
1999 Pele do Tempo, Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Brazil
1998 Miguel Rio Branco, Aperture, USA
1997 Silent Book, Cosac & Naify, Brazil
1996 Nakta, Multiprint Grafica e Editoria Ltda., Brazil
1985 Dulce Sudor Amargo, Fondo de Cultura Economico, Mexico
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