Toronto Photography Meetup Group

NY Times
Lens: Showcase: Surreal Selves in Rio
By MARIANA VASCONCELLOS
Rog'erio Reis turned his back on the official Carnaval parade in Rio de Janeiro to explore the people of the backstreet "counter-Carnaval."

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/1 ... /?emc=eta1

While you are at it you might want to check out some of the other articles and slide shows.

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VERY interesting read. Thanks for posting this. Very timely. My thoughts always turn to Rio this time of year. I was in Rio in 2002 and people I met made it clear to me that Rio's carnaval was the glitziest LEAST fun Carnaval in the country. It's really for the benefit of tourists and super-wealthy. Prior to Lent, each city has it's own Carnaval incorporating local customs. Many consider the Nord-Este Carnivals to be the best - those in the northeast of the country. So I always wondered what people in Rio (those that didn't attend the corporate run glitzy event) did for Carnaval. Now I have a partial idea. Though I definitely do take issue with the Time's characterization of the Carnavals depicted in the article as occuring 'on the back streets of Rio'. The well-heeled beach condo enclave of Ipanema and the financial district are hardly 'backstreets'. The events are counter-culture for sure, but definitely not representative of the backstreets. I wonder what the people of the favela districts like Rocinha do. THERE'S the backstreets of Rio. That's where the real beat of samba resides.