Portraits of our social landscape in transformative change, specially with a generation in constant upgrading / reframing and adapting the new big issues. My project visually investigates a new perspective on social spaces as an emblematic catalogue of the different generations, paths of life and their connection with the landscape they call home.

‘Social Make-Up’  is an extensive testimony into the social function of living public spaces as a social, cultural and economic identity of both ; Brazilian and Portuguese territory. It hosts human relationships and the benefits of human participation in the revitalization of public / urban and rural spaces and the effects on the environment.

What leads to expose fragile issues the country faces, and as consequence  3 main movements/ phenomenons being witnessed  in Brazil  and how the social spaces are being used and adapted to the pressure of complex variables in this moment in time, and the generation in time.

    •    The urban crisis in major cities of Brazil with the political argument of revitalization of the public space and the inefficient solutions in infra structure for the evasion, displacement and migratory events by squatters and homeless with none local, state and federal government support . This a story Ana Montez has been following and photographing very close to this group recently removed from the bridge which was hosting so many of them since 1989. Due to the significant contact, interaction and interviews among them she’s designed significant portraits of some pivotal economic wounds in Brazil : unemployment, the economic crisis, covid, real state bubble, exorbitant taxes, bank and credit crisis, habitation collapse. 

    •    Informal Work in Brazil and the challenges inherited by former administrations, laws’ dissolutions and constant reform of the labor constitution. The potencial of the new labor federal planning, as set in the goals of President Lula administration to advance in this crescent and constant crisis. A visual investigation portraying who the new generation of informal labor are that since the structure on the laws boosted the economy and the flux of migration to major cities where they informally are creating jobs that doesn’t require specialized education or training. One of the main arguments; it minimizes the need of huge taxes payments, in other hand it doesn’t offer benefits or long term welfare guarantees... what has been called mistakenly in Brazil as “ Brazilian entrepreneur soul “ usually meaning the economy of basic survival.The visual reportage consists on the portraits and interviews with the new “informal” workers during 2023 in their different crafts, and based on statistics and links with Brazil labor structure, President Lula’s challenges , and how the informal work weights in the economy of the country and in their personal lives : family, cultural, social and mental issues, anxiety. 

    •     Environment Generational Migration with Millennium parents , the generation of mobile,  IT tech work practice, and the ones affected by economic pressure, are leading an exodus to eco-friendly/ sustainable areas and raising families in alternative ways as in mobile vans/ homes. Their efforts  making this lifestyle works, the challenges, the economic aspect of a nomad life changing  the social landscape, the environment crisis aspects connected to consumerism and their decision and their play in the new configuration of a family. 

For more details, photos, commissions and assignments:  contact Ana Montez 
anamontez@hotmail.com