“Obras” by Photographer Sophie Barbasch

In her most up-to-date collection and photobook, “Obras,” New York-based photographer Sophie Barbasch (beforehand featured below) traces the route of the Transnordestina—a railroad less than development in Northeastern Brazil that ties the desert to the sea. Barbasch’s curiosity in Brazil is personal—introduced to the language and tradition at a young age by her Brazilian stepmother, she acquired Portuguese and traveled to Brazil consistently, often asking yourself if she was an insider or outsider. At some level, she resolved that she necessary to return to Brazil on her have. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to make the operate that would come to be “Obras,” Barbasch lived in Fortaleza for a year, touring through Ceará, Piauí, and Pernambuco:

“I followed the route of the train like a map, listening to stories about drought, the emergence of labor unions, and corrupt judges about ‘quilombos’ and their sacred areas about ‘assentamentos’ and various political regimes. Individuals explained to me about the first railroad built by the British and how the colonial shadow has shifted and morphed but in no way really disappeared they explained to me about anthropologists who arrived to extract and were being followed dwelling by ghosts. These stories exist in unique times, registers, and translations. They give way to images that traverse the darkish place involving languages.”

“Obras” is at this time on watch by November 7th in a solo exhibition at Penumbra Foundation. See more from the undertaking underneath!