Bodies and Souls, the English title of this project, is a result of a two-year immersion in a house in Lapa, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro renowned for its nightlife, where transvestites live and work. The Portuguese title, Mem de Sa, 100, refers instead to the house address.
The time spent living together created a sense of familiarity, complicity, and trust that diluted any kind of prejudgment one could possibly have about this community, which is invariably stigmatized by society.
My project’s goal was not only to give voice to a group of marginalized people but also to show, thanks to my pictures, the dignity, the beauty, and the sensuality of their bodies and souls, who are at the same time male and female, during their daily lives.
During these years mutual confidence, respect, and complicity were the basis of my work.
I chose natural light for my photographs in order to transmit the naturalness and humanity I wanted to show.
In this photographic essay, life pulses in citrus colors and in the delusional imaginary of these boys and women, who do not allow themselves to be ranked by inaccurate demarcations.
These photographs tell us about the permanent search for identity and happiness, two points that connect us all, without any distinction of gender or social class.
I worked most of my life as a photojournalist hired by the most important newspapers in Brazil. Since 2008, I’ve decided to tell long-term authorial and documental stories with my photography; for example, I have been working for several years documenting Brazilian suburban carnival.
Ana Carolina Fernandes still collaborates with Reuters Agency, The New York Times, and some Brazilian newspapers and magazines.
