Brazil

"In São Paulo, I produced my first portrait of the beautiful mixed-blood Nelida, who, all by herself, could stand as the manifesto of my Brazilian work… When Stefan Zweig fled Nazi Germany, he was entranced by the 'pure mix' that characterised the population in his place of refuge, Brazil. It was therefore to this 'multiracial' colonial population that I first turned. Stefan Zweig’s enthusiastic vision of an all-inclusive society didn’t leap out at me though…

On the first day, I arrived in São Paulo and went to a comfortable hotel in the city’s most prestigious district, at the top of the country’s social pyramid: topped by a minuscule prism that owns the entire edifice (the whole pyramid, not just the comfortable hotel), but that in no way mixes around, except for its contact with domestic staff.

A white prism, a minority whose ethnic purity matches that of the Indians at the very bottom. It’s a reminder to us that this country dreamt up by Jesuits, was actually built by white leaders, through the work of black indigenous slaves.”

Extract from Zoé Zoé, Femmes du mondes, 2007, Éditions Gallimard