Retratos Pintados: Portraits from the Titus Riedl Collection

April 4 - 28, 2013

For Portland Photo Month, Blue Sky will present a special third exhibition, Retratos Pintados, featuring more than 50 reproductions of Brazilian hand-painted vernacular photographs from the collection of Titus Riedl. At a time when black-and-white photographs were not considered dramatic enough, these retratos pintados ("painted portraits") glamorized and idealized their subjects. Black-and-white family photos were enlarged and painted, conferring status on members of the family and portraying them as icons or saints. Using oil washes and other techniques specific to the region, local artisans embellished clothing with pattern and color, smoothed wrinkles, added jewelry, and sometimes resurrected deceased relatives, illustrating the fantasies and desires of their customers.

Images from this incredible collection were selected by photographer Martin Parr and published as Retratos Pintados (Nazraeli Press, 2010). Parr writes in the introduction of the book, "Nothing has stopped me in my tracks more than when I was first introduced to a set of images collected by Titus Riedl. . . If you visit a house in the northeast of Brazil, you are very likely to see a photo painting on the wall. . . Although these images are still produced, they are now more likely to be computer-generated rather than hand-painted. As another analogue tradition dies, we offer the portraits in this book as a testament to a most remarkable method of creating portraits. Let the dream live on."