Our most recent PhotoExpedition in Brazil is now complete. I am finally home and trying to get caught up. In the meantime, I wanted to post a few images from my good friend, Brazilian photographer Izan Petterle.

Izan is a photographer for National Geographic, Brazil and is my partner on the PhotoExpeditions and the cowboys project. Izan has a wonderful, artistic eye and a warm, patient personality. I have learned much from observing his approach and watching him work. I think perhaps my favorite thing about Izan is the energy and enthusiasm he brings to his work. His enthusiasm is contagious and time spent with him always revitalizes my own vision. Izan has quickly become one of my best friends and I am proud to be able to post his work here on my blog.

You can see more of Izan’s work on the National Geographic, Brazil blog. It’s in Portuguese, so you may want to access the link using Google Translate.

Here are a few words and pictures from Izan:

“I want to thank my friend Greg for the opportunity of writing to his blog. We have been together in a great adventure, along with our seven lucky students, that might have changed our lives in a living and professional sense. It was our second experience doing photo expeditions in this wild and remote region. As we had been here before and we knew much better the Pantaneiro people, we felt much more comfortable doing this work. As a result, we were much more effective in the way we shot the trip. Images have this amazing characteristic, of being beyond the spoken language. Pictures are a form of meta-language, which can be understood in any part of the world. Maybe this is the best part of our partnership, help to break barriers between cultures, building bridges among countries, promoting a better understanding of our diverse contemporary society, even living in a time ruled by the so-called globalization. I have this thesis, we are all Americans, if you are born in North, Central or
South America, it’s all the same, does not matter, we were all born in the New World.”

-Izan Petterle-

Roping horses for branding at Faz. Carendá

Cowboy illuminated with flashlight as lightning flashes in the background at Faz. Carendá.

Cowboy framed by lasso at Faz. Ronco do Bugio.

Storm clouds form as rainy season begins over the Pantanal.

Cowboy Buiúi (BooYoo) brands a colt at Faz. Carendá.

Cowboy Luis with cigarette at Faz. São Carlos.

Luis jumps from his horse at Faz. São Carlos.

Luis son at Faz. São Carlos.

Luis sharpens his knife. All Pantaneiro cowboys carry a knife and sharpener in their belt.

Horses run though water at Faz. San Vicenté.

Chapada Dos Guimarães at sunset.

Teaching by example.

I only have time for just a quick post. I am back in Brazil to teach a workshop and more work on the cowboy project.

The picture below is of a crowd that gathered on the sidewalk while I was showing the Cowboys & Crocodiles slideshow on my computer at our table at an outdoor cantina in a little town called Poconé near the Pantanal.

In the small world category, it turns out that the lady at the bottom left is the sister of the owner of Fazenda Carendá, the ranch we spent the most time at during our trip here in August. She owns the restaurant we were dining in and we found out she was related purely by coincidence.

More Brazil posts to come as I find Internet access…

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Last spring I was invited to speak at a very large photography convention in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The show, PhotoImage Brazil, was in August and I was fortunate to spend two wonderful weeks in Brazil as part of the convention. I’ll be posting more about my experiences as a speaker there in the next couple of days.

When PhotoImage Brazil show manager Duda Escobar first asked me to come and speak in Brazil I was a little ambivalent. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know anything about photography in Brazil or the market there.

When she asked a short time later if I could lead a workshop or a “PhotoExpedition” into a wilderness area called the Pantanal with a Brazilian photographer I didn’t know, I initially declined. Being away from home for two weeks during wedding season is very difficult for me.

I had no idea what a trip to this wild Pantanal region would entail. However the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a wonderful opportunity this was to explore a country I knew little about. Perhaps this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity that couldn’t pass. I soon called Duda and asked her to please put me in touch with the other photographer so that we could explore this idea together.

The “other” photographer turned out to be none other than Izan Petterle, a very gifted photographer from National Geographic, Brasil. After my first conversation with Izan I was completely at ease. Izan is an old hand at doing these “PhotoExpeditions” or adventures. He has been doing them successfully for years. His enthusiasm and knowledge of the area made me excited about the project and we agreed to proceed. Initially we wanted about 10-12 students to make this trip a real workshop. The only problem was that we were so late putting it together that we did not have time to advertise it adequately. As my departure for Brazil approached, we did not have any students signed up and we came close to canceling the Photo Expedition.

In the end, we decided that if nothing else, this Photo Expedition would be a good opportunity for both of us to get out and explore our own creative visions and tastes. It has been a long time since I worked on a project such as this and was hoping that a trip into the wilderness could rejuvenate my weary eyes. For the past 5 years I have photographed women in white dresses on nearly every Saturday during spring, summer and fall. It was time for a different kind of creative challenge.

I am so glad we came to this decision. My trip to Brazil in August was one of the highlights of my life. From the enthusiasm that I was greeted with by photographers at PhotoImage in Sao Paulo, to the humble, yet warm and proud hospitality offered me by the ranchers and cowboys in the Pantanal, this was a dream trip.

I have always known that personal projects are an important part of growing as an artist. However, knowing this and actually doing it are two different things. Between family obligations, work and other distractions I just never took an interest in pursuing a personal project. I have always been and I still am extremely passionate about photography. I have just reached that point in my life where I no longer live to work, I work to live. Carrying a camera around in my off time is not something I generally practice.

I cannot begin to tell you what a rewarding and educational experience this trip has been for me. This kind of documentary storytelling is the reason I became a photographer. It is the part of photojournalism that I loved the most. I am sorry that I let so much time pass before pursuing this type of in depth project again.

My new good friend Izan made a post on his National Geographic blog about our trip. In it, he talks about watching me work and the things he learned from me. Izan, my dear friend, learning is a two-way street. We learned from each other. I loved the enthusiasm with which Izan approached each day, the wonderful eye he has for light and his way of capturing ordinary scenes with a very artistic and abstract feel.

Even though Michael Jordan was the best basketball player in the world and Pele perhaps the best soccer player ever, both men needed coaches to help them grow even at the peak of their careers. Sadly many photographers work in relative isolation without exposure to new ideas and approaches. It is good to seek out a mentor or a source of inspiration, no matter what level your career is at.

I returned home to the US with renewed sense of purpose in my work. I see this newfound sense of excitement in the wedding images I have made each weekend since I left Brazil. I can’t wait to return in November for another Photo Expedition, another opportunity to photograph the Pantanerios, and another opportunity to stretch my creative legs.

More than anything else, I am glad that Izan is now among the best of my friends. I look forward to my every conversation with him and proceeding on this exciting journey down the TransPantaneira with him.

Here are a few images from the trip. The images were initially edited for a High Definition slideshow, and most have been cropped to a 16×9 HD format.