The exhibition “Modernidade! Photography from Brazil (1940–1960)” transports visitors into the golden age of Brazilian photography. It sheds light on one of the country’s most significant cultural transformations, when photography increasingly came to be understood as a modern, artistic medium and, through innovative techniques and visual narrative forms, helped shape national identity.

The focus is on photographers who, between the 1940s and 1960s, pushed beyond the boundaries of traditional photography and developed new aesthetics. Their works reflect not only Brazil’s social and political changes, but also the search for a new visual language suited to a modern Brazil, an era marked by new beginnings, industrialization, and cultural redefinition.

Among the outstanding photographers featured in the exhibition are Gaspar Gasparian, German Lorca, Nelson Kojranski, José Yalenti, and Eduardo Salvatore. Through experimental approaches, they interpreted Brazilian reality in unconventional ways. Their photographs document a society in transition, between traditional heritage and a progressive spirit.

The works, which are already part of the collections of MoMA in New York and Tate Modern in London, are now being presented in Germany for the first time at the Leica Gallery Frankfurt.