RIO

Ardent, delusional, excessive, excited, violent, Rio is one of those cities that drain imagination may end up trapped clichés. The latest in the "Portraits of cities" collection, a collection of photographs by Massimo Vitali - dubbed Rio de Janeiro - is surprising. No lush tropical vegetation or exuberant body. No vibrant teeming streets to the rhythm of carnival. Italian photographer sketch a landscape halftone unusual for this artist known for his photographs of huge crowded beaches crushed by a white-hot sun. 
One finds here more intimate and less incisive in search of in-between, watching for the moment when time slows down and freezes, away from the frantic pounding samba or baila funk. His Rio has everything a sleeping beauty lying in a milky green. Abandoned workings, still places, children playing on the pale sand Itacoatiara deserted favelas rushing down the hills in a faded sky ... Throughout the pages, pictures from a recent order for the New York Times Magazine exude nostalgia bittersweet, near the melancholy Brazilians call saudade. A mixture of solitude and salvation, happiness out of the world that lives more than he says. 

Rio de Janeiro, Massimo Vitali, collection "Portraits of cities", ed. Be-Poles, 18 €.