São Paulo – The Pernambuco-born photographer Fred Jordão is exhibiting his work through December 5 at the Guimarães Rosa Institute in Beirut, Lebanon. The show, “Paths of a New Sertão,” brings together images Jordão captured in Brazil’s northeastern semiarid region, accompanied by reflections on the Sertão as both a contemporary reality and a universal concept, in dialogue with the work of Brazilian writer Guimarães Rosa.
The introductory panel of the photo exhibition bears the title of Guimarães Rosa’s most famous short story, “The Third Bank of the River,” and features a text by Fred Jordão about the Sertão. In it, the photographer—who is also an author—reflects on the region’s uniqueness while noting the possibility of similarities between places, including the Sertão itself, as well as the personal and often contradictory lens through which each inhabitant interprets the Sertão.
Lush landscapes and drought-scarred scenery are among the images on display in Beirut, as well as the architecture of towns in the Sertão—with their hammocked houses, colorful facades, or clay walls; the boy with his goats in a boat on the river; the sertanejo on his horse and the sertanejo on his motorcycle; the saint on the carefully prepared home altar; the makeshift curtain hung crookedly over the doorway of a small room.
“Over the past three decades, Fred Jordão has traveled throughout [Brazil’s] Northeastern Sertão, documenting its landscapes, its people, and its contrasts. His photographs reveal a Sertão undergoing transformation, a land where the old and the new coexist. Blending realism and poetry, Jordão offers a renewed vision of the Brazilian Sertão,” states the Guimarães Rosa Institute—Beirut, in presenting the exhibition.
The exhibition opened on November 6, with the presence of Fred Jordão, as well as the Brazilian ambassador to Beirut, Tarcísio Costa, and the head of the Embassy’s Cultural and Press Section, Pablo Romero, among other guests, including around 100 attendees such as members of the diplomatic and consular corps, representatives of Lebanese academic and cultural circles, and members of the Brazilian community.
More information here.
Service
Exhibition “Veredas de um Novo Sertão”
Photographs by Fred Jordão
From November 6 to December 5, 2025
Visits: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Beirut time)
Mar Mitr Street, Ashrafieh – Guimarães Rosa Institute (IGR) – Beirut – Lebanon
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
