Claudia Andujar was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1931 and currently lives and works in São Paolo. She grew up in Transylvania, which at the time had recently been incorporated into Romania after years of Hungarian domination. During WWII, Claudia’s father, a Hungarian Jew, was deported to Dachau where he was killed along with most of her paternal relatives. Claudia Andujar fled with her mother to Switzerland, immigrated first to the United States in 1946, then to Brazil in 1955 where she began a career as a photojournalist.
The young Susi Korihana thëri in a creek, infrared film. Catrimani, Roraima, 1972-1974. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Claudia Andujar first met the Yanomami in 1971 while working on an article about the Amazon for Realidade magazine. Fascinated by the culture of this isolated community, she decided to embark on an in-depth photographic essay on their daily life after receiving a Guggenheim fellowship to support the project. From the very beginning, her approach differed greatly from the straightforward documentary style of her contemporaries. The photographs she made during this period show how she experimented with a variety of photographic techniques in an attempt to visually translate the shamanic culture of the Yanomami. Applying Vaseline to the lens of her camera, using flash devices, oil lamps, and infrared film, she created visual distortions, streaks of light and saturated colors, thus imbuing her images with a feeling of the otherworldly.
Candinha and Mariazinha Korihana thëri clean mutum, whose feathers are used to feather arrows, Catrimani, Roraima, 1974. Photo © Claudia Andujar
The shaman and tuxaua John blows the hallucinogen yãkoana. Catrimani, Roraima, 1974. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Catrimani, Roraima, 1974. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Claudia Andujar also developed a series of sober black-and-white portraits that capture the grace, dignity, and humanity of the Yanomami. Focusing closely on faces and body fragments, she tightly frames her images, using a dramatic chiaroscuro to create a feeling of intimacy and draw attention to individual psychological states.
Unahi Opikɨ thëri, Opikɨ thëri, Roraima, 1974. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Hawk Feathers, Hwaia u, tributary of the Almada Wolf River, tributary of the Catrimani, Roraima, 1976. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Alongside the many photographs taken during this period, the exhibition will also present a selection of Yanomami drawings. After years of photographing the Yanomami herself, Claudia Andujar felt it was important to provide them with the opportunity to represent their own conceptions of nature and the universe. She thus initiated a drawing project, equipping members of the community with markers and paper. A selection of these drawings representing Yanomami myths, rituals, and shamanic visions will be presented in the exhibition.
Political Activism
By the late 1970s, Claudia Andujar had reached a turning point in her career. The construction of a transcontinental highway in the Amazon, initiated by Brazil’s military government, opened up the region to deforestation as well as invasive agricultural programs, bringing epidemics to the Yanomami and leading to the annihilation of entire communities. This situation reminded her of the genocide in Europe, and its impact on her was such that she decided to deepen her commitment to the Yanomami struggle. In 1978 she founded, with the missionary Carlo Zacquini and the anthropologist Bruce Albert, the Commissão Pro-Yanomami (CCPY) and began a fourteen-year-long campaign to designate their homeland. At this point in her career photography, she put her artistic project aside and used photography primarily as a means to raise awareness and support her cause.
Yanomami can set fire to malocas when they migrate, want to get rid of a plague, or when an important leader dies. Infrared film, Catrimani, Roraima, 1976. Photo © Claudia Andujar
In the early 80s, Claudia Andujar took a series of black-and-white portraits of the Yanomami as part of a vaccination campaign. They are wearing numbered labels to help identify them for their medical records. The artist was struck by how these labels recalled the numerical tattoos of those ‘branded for death’ during the Holocaust. She later revisited these portraits and created the Marcados series, which reveal the ambiguity inherent in this act of labeling even if it is ultimately for their survival. In the exhibition, we will present previously unseen photographs from this series.
Ericó, Roraima, 1983. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Aracá, Amazonas / Surucucus, Roraima, 1983. Photo © Claudia Andujar
Papiú, Roraima, 1983. Photo © Claudia Andujar
One of the other major works presented in this section is the Genocide of the Yanomami: Death of Brazil (1989-2018). This audiovisual installation, which has been recreated specifically for the exhibition, was originally made in reaction to the decrees signed in 1989, which broke up Yanomami territory in nineteen separate reservations. Produced with photos from Claudia Andujar’s archive, re-photographed using lights and filters, the projection leads the visitor from a world of harmony to one devastated by the progress of Western civilization. A soundtrack composed by Marlui Miranda combining Yanomami chants and experimental music accompanies this installation.
Maloca near the Catholic Mission of the Catrimani River, Roraima, Infrared Film, 1976. Photo © Claudia Andujar
In 1992, following the campaign led by Claudia Andujar, Carlo Zacquini, Bruce Albert and the Yanomami shaman and spokesman, Davi Kopenawa, the Brazilian government agreed to legally demarcate Yanomami territory. Recognized on the eve of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, this territory is still threatened by illegal mining and logging.
Opikɨ thëri Group, North Perimeter Highway (abandoned), Roraima, 1981. Photo © Claudia Andujar
The work of Claudia Andujar provides both an unparalleled glimpse into the complex cosmological worldview of the Yanomami and a powerful political indictment of the violence perpetrated against them. The explosive force of her photography remains relevant today in view of the renewed threats facing the Yanomami and the Amazon basin.
Exhibition
'Claudia Andujar, The Yanomami Struggle'
From January 30 to May 10, 2020
The Fondation Cartier is pleased to announce the presence of Claudia Andujar, Davi Kopenawa, Bruce Albert and Thyago Nogueira at the exhibition’s opening events. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Fondation Cartier will publish the catalogue in both French and English, presenting the artist’s photographs as well as excerpts from her notebooks and Yanomami drawings. With texts by Claudia Andujar, Thyago Nogueira and Bruce Albert, it will feature a map of Yanomami territory as well as a timeline documenting the artist’s life and the history of the Yanomami people.
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