Showcase I
Text 11
From the end of the 1950s to the mid-60s, Scheier worked for TV Record. He photographed personalities, music shows, and the station’s soap operas. He documented shows by international artists such as Johnnie Ray, Roy Hamilton, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Brenda Lee, Domenico Modugno, Caterina Valente and Yma Sumac. The resulting images were published in albums printed on photographic paper, with a visual narrative flow that showed the arrival of the artist, the audience, backstage and the best moments of the show. Both the photographs and the layout of the albums, with borderless, sequential images, show that the photojournalism model adopted by the magazine O Cruzeiro remained a central reference for Scheier.
Showcase I – Captions
I1
Sammy Davis Jr., Will Mastin Trio, TV Record, São Paulo, 1960
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
I2
Ray Charles, TV Excelsior, São Paulo, 1963
ALBUM ON PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
I3
Domenico Modugno, TV Record, São Paulo, 1959
ALBUM ON PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
I4
Woody Herman e seus astros mundiais do jazz [Woody Herman and His World Jazz Stars], TV Record, São Paulo, 1958
ALBUM ON PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
I5
Dr. Jivago [Dr Zhivago], TV Record, São Paulo, 1959
ALBUM ON PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
Albums and Books
Showcase J
Text 12
Peter Scheier produced four books during his career: Paraná, Brasil [Paraná, Brazil], commissioned by the government of the state of Paraná in 1953; São Paulo: Fastest Growing City in the World, published in 1954 on the occasion of the festivities surrounding the 400th anniversary of the city of São Paulo; Brasília vive! [Brasilia Lives!], 1961; and Imagens do passado de Minas Gerais [Images of the Past in Minas Gerais], in 1968. His photographs were also used extensively in the photoalbum Portrait of a Great Country: Brazil (1959), alongside the work of other photographers, such as Claudia Andujar, Alice Brill and Marcel Gautherot. Above all, these books were publicity material for the places depicted, some of them commissioned by the authorities, others intended for an international audience, aiming to promote the economic potential of the country.
In a bilingual (English and French) edition of 350 examples, São Paulo: Fastest Growing City in the world was intended for an international readership. Only concerned with the center of the city, then its wealthiest area, the book presents an image of a modern and cosmopolitan São Paulo. Using low-angle and diagonal shots, Scheier emphasized the verticality of the buildings, but also showed the city’s leisure spaces, restaurants and luxury shops. The book emphasizes the rapidly growing real estate market in São Paulo from the 1940s on and the increasing demand for apartments. It includes a portrait of the architect Oscar Niemeyer in front of a poster for the Copan Building, then under construction, one of his most emblematic projects.
Text 13
Scheier organized the photos of his young children and family trips in albums produced to the same standard as his professional work. In many of these warm and personal albums, Scheier interleaves his photos with texts and images, such as those from modern magazines, above all Life Magazine (USA) and O Cruzeiro. A sense of visual narrative pervades these works.
In 1960, Scheier purchased a VW Kombi van and transformed it into a sort of camper van, using it to take his family on trips around Brazil, when he would take candid photos of his wife and children and photograph the places they visited.
The album of the family trip to the Northeast in 1962, for example, tells the story of the family’s photographic trip to the interior of the region. The images show the repeated breakdowns of the Scheier’s van at the roadside in the Northeast and the family interacting with the local population. The result is a visual chronicle about the reality of the places they visited, full of anecdotes of a family trip.
Showcase J – Captions
J1
Peter Scheier and George Rado. São Paulo Fastest Growing City in the World. Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo/Porto Alegre: Livraria Kosmos Editora, 1954.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
J2
Peter Scheier. Paraná Brasil. Curitiba: Imprensa Paranaense, 1953
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J3
Paraná, 1952
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. PRINTED IN 2019.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
J4
Paper Boy at the Gustavo Capanema Palace, Rio de Janeiro, 1963
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. PRINTED IN 2019.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
J5
Portrait of a Great Country Brazil. Amsterdam/Rio de Janeiro: Colibris, 1959.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
J6
Peter Scheier. Imagens do passado de Minas Gerais [Images of the Past of Minas Gerais]. Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo/ Porto Alegre: Livraria Kosmos Editora, 1968.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
J7
Nordeste [Northeast], c. 1962
ALBUM ON PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION
J8
20 Aufnahmen aus Brasiliens Nord-Osten [20 Photos from Brazil’s Northeast], c. 1962
PHOTOGRAPH ON PAPER, GELATIN AND SILVER. VINTAGE PRINT.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES COLLECTION