The Galería Elba Benítez is pleased to announce the coming exhibition of a selection of photos from Claudia Andujar’s historic photographic project A Sônia, opening on May 22.
In 1971, the renowned documentary Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar encountered by chance a young woman named Sônia who had come to São Paulo in search of work as a model and needed a photographer to assist her in assembling a portfolio. The result of the collaboration between photographer and model developed into an astonishing photo-essay that presented Sônia as both individual and as archetype of feminine qualities as seen through a feminine gaze. The photographs themselves freely employ experimental techniques such as reversing positive and negative images, dislocated cropping and angles, and vivid post-production coloration, all of which come together to create a dream-like atmosphere for Sônia’s palpable sensuality before the photographer and her camera.
As Andujar once wrote about A Sônia:
Sônia didn’t know how to pose. But that’s exactly where her innocent charm came from. Her nonprofessional gestures and attitudes revealed an easygoing, peaceful sensuality. She no longer seemed to be facing a photo camera, she seemed removed from the world.
