Imaging Brazil 250: Selling Colorful Umbrellas in Olinda, PE (2009)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

250: Colorful umbrellas

Pernambuco has a rich and colorful culture. Both Recife and Olinda are widely known for colorful carnival that attracts millions of visitors. Also well known is the frevo, which has a very interesting history. Late nineteenth century, two military bands participated in carnival parades. These bands were very competitive and tried to outdo each other by playing louder and faster. Some members of these orchestras drove the bystanders apart with capoeira movements and with knives, and soon these rough guys from both orchestras were fighting each other. These fights resulted in many injuries and even deaths. Eventually, the knives were replaced by little, colorful  umbrellas, and capoeira movements were further refined to the typical frevo dance. The man in the picture sells the little umbrellas.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2017

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Imaging Brazil 248: Folk Singer in Olinda, PE (2009)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

248: Folk singer

The city of Olinda, and particularly the  colorful historic center, attracts many tourists. This center is well preserved, and is therefore included on the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List. The city was founded in 1535, and barely a century later it was looted and burned by the Dutch invaders. The rebuilt city was capital of Pernambuco for a long time. The tourists draw many craftsmen and artists to the center: you will see dozens of stalls with a broad range of manually crafted merchandise, and several musicians wandering around. This musician played and sang locally known songs, thereby attracting several dozen interested listeners.

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2017

Imaging Brazil 237: Berimbaus in Olinda, PE (2009)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

237: Berimbaus

There was a small outdoor market in the cozy historic center of Olinda. Several dozen stalls were full of a wide range of crafts and utensils. Most of this merchandise was typical for this region. A handful of vendors tried to sell their own works of art to the public: small paintings, miniatures of houses and folkloric scenes, crocheted and knitted dresses, and colorful handbags. There was a stall that just caught my attention: berimbaus were offered for sale. These stringed instruments, with an open calabash as a sounding board, are common as the accompanying instrument in capoeira. The man showed me how to play this instrument: with a smooth stone, the string is stirred into a steady rhythm. Indeed, I managed to produce a nice sound, but it wasn’t easy to keep the rhythm. Not bad, for the first time.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2017

IMAGES OF BRAZIL: SELEXION 2009 – 008

A selection of photographs taken in Brazil in 2009.

Part 8:
Olinda (PE) – Dog statue
Olinda (PE) – Maracatu wall painting
Recife (PE) – Marco Zéro
Recife (PE) – Colonial houses

Olinda (PE) – Dog statue

Olinda (PE) – Maracatu wall painting 

Recife (PE) – Marco Zéro

Recife (PE) – Colonial houses

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

IMAGES OF BRAZIL: SELEXION 2009 – 007

A selection of photographs taken in Brazil in 2009.

Part 7:
Olinda (PE) – Sé Cathedral
Olinda (PE) – Wood carver
Olinda (PE) – Bicycle made of branches
Olinda (PE) – Poodle

Olinda (PE) – Sé Cathedral

Olinda (PE) – wood carver 

Olinda (PE) – Bicycle made of branches

Olinda (PE) – Poodle 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

IMAGES OF BRAZIL: SELEXION 2009 – 006

A selection of photographs taken in Brazil in 2009.

Part 6:
Recife (PE) – Skyline by night
Recife (PE) – Skyline
Olinda (PE) – Local artist
Olinda (PE) – Head of a statue

Recife (PE) – Skyline by night

Recife (PE) – Skyline 

Olinda (PE) – Local artist

Olinda (PE) – Head of a statue 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

Imaging Brazil 228: Homeless Man in Olinda, PE (2009)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

228: Homeless man 

JANUARY 2009: Homeless man 

In January 2009, I visited the cozy historical town of Olinda. Olinda played an important role in the Dutch occupation of Brazil, but nothing remains of the Dutch period in Olinda, because the city was burned by the Dutch. The results of reconstruction by the Portuguese are well admired; you can take long walks in the hilly old town, on the slippery cobblestones. You will see dozens of historic houses are plastered in bright  colors. At the end of a tiring day, I met a group of my fellow travelers, who were waiting for our bus that would take us back to Recife, where we had our accommodation. A man with a distinctive turban and a large gray garbage bag walked towards us. One of our travelers had turned on a radio and others began to dance on the rhythm of Brazilian popular music. Spontaneously this homeless man joined them and danced with much joy. He sang too, and appeared to be happy to dance away his sorrows.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

IMAGES OF BRAZIL: SELEXION 2009 – 005

A selection of photographs taken in Brazil in 2009.

Part 5:
Recife (PE) – Skyline
Olinda (PE) – Colorful houses
Olinda (PE) – Bicycle on the beach
Olinda (PE) – Colorful houses

Recife (PE) – Skyline

Olinda (PE) – Colorful houses 

Olinda (PE) – Bicycle on the beach

Olinda (PE) – Colorful houses 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

Imaging Brazil 216: Colorful Umbrellas in Olinda, PE (2009)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

216. Colorful umbrellas 

JANUARY 2009: Colorful umbrellas

Just a few kilometers from Recife is Olinda, a historic town that is included on the impressive UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nowadays, the city has expanded in almost all directions, but the cozy historic center is surprisingly well preserved. Typical of the center are the small houses that are plastered with a broad range of bright colors. Since each house has a different color, the postman flawlessly delivers the mail to the address with proper combination of colors. Not only are the houses equipped with bright colors. The small umbrellas, typical of the region and associated with the frevo dance. The umbrellas with the colors red, green, blue and yellow are found in every corner of the city; also here, with their long sun shades, attached to a whitewashed wall.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

Imaging Brazil 207: Traffic Clown in Olinda, PE (2009)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

207. Clown

JANUARY 2009: Clown

It is sad that more than more than forty thousand fatalities are counted annually in the Brazilian traffic. Some measures have been improved to improve road safety in Brazil, but it’s not sufficient and effective . Alcohol and mobile phone use are still major causes of fatal accidents. Therefore, initiatives at local level emerge to reduce the high number of casualties. When I was in Olinda in January 2009, I noticed this funny clown. He was hired by the city of Olinda to make passersby aware, in a playful way, of their traffic behavior and how to behave properly in traffic.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2009, 2016

Imaging Brazil 004: Colorful Olinda, PE (2005)

A personal selection of photographs with their stories.

004. Colorful Olinda

FEBRUARY 2005: Colorful Olinda

In February 2005, a friend invited me to travel with him to the state of Pernambuco, in Northeast Brazil. We stayed at this family in Paulista, a city north of Recife and Olinda. We went to the carnival festivities in both Recife and Olinda. Olinda is widely known for its colorful historical center. Literally colorful even, since most houses in that center have been painted in different combinations of bright colors. According to a local guide, even the mailmen know the addresses for their color combinations.

 

© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2005, 2014

COLORFUL BRAZIL: Homeless Man in Olinda (PE)

Homeless man in Olinda (PE)

The colorful historic center in Olinda attracts many Brazilian and foreign tourists. The little houses that are painted in different bright colors. The mail man does not need to know the house number, but the indication in which colors the house is painted. The steep, cobble stone streets, following the slopes of the hills. The local Artesanato market, where one may find a great variety of handicraft. During Carnival, the narrow streets are very crowded; people dance their own frevo dance style behind the blocos (carnivalesque percussion groups). All were good reasons to add the historic center of Olinda on the UNESCO World Heritage List. There are not only tourists on the streets. There are many local guides, who can make a tour with you for a fee. Be sure that this guide has a badge of the ‘prefeitura’, and that you make a fixed price before the start of the personal tour. Such a guide tells you (in Portuguese) the details and the history of the sight-seeings. There are also some homeless people on the streets, like we had met this man at the and of the afternoon, when we were waiting for the bus. Despite his impoverished conditions, despite his shabby clothes, this man showed his eagerness to dance with some of us, and shared his happy moments with us.

The original picture was taken in January 2009.

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Olinda, eternal city

474 years Olinda

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