"I think other, 'real' photographers might be jealous or mad that my photos are up???I mean, this was kind of an accidental thing," says junior Monica McDonough as we sit on the couches in the lobby of One World Caf??, where the works in her her photo exhibit, "Fazendas de Caf??," adorn the walls.
This admission is not one that most artists will give freely -- especially not artists who have as keen an eye for color, composition and beauty as McDonough does. Through 19 digital prints, on display at One World until May 8, McDonough captures the eerily lonesome feel of several coffee plantations in rural Brazil which she visited last summer while doing research through the Latin American Studies department.
As a whole package, the images recall the American South and all the baggage of decay and disrepair that comes with so many of its portrayals -- like a Faulkner novel in clear color plantation landscapes. In "Rodas" ("Wheels"), three discarded tires, rusted to a rich, dark red, lean against a stone wall. Their hue almost exactly matches the color of the red dirt of the road, which recurs in many of McDonough's photos. In "Parede," the pinkish rocks of a collapsing stone wall match the smooth bricks of the dusty road nearby, again combining an image of waste and corrosion with a dominant color scheme.
The collection goes back and forth; some of the images are striking bi-chromatic studies done in contrasting color schemes (the yellow and green front fa??ade of a small, beautiful country church in "Santa Gertrudis"), while others are drab and almost irrelevant to the rest of the show ("O Campo," "Estatue"). In a handful of photographs of Brazilian imperial palm trees, "A Arvore," "Palmeiros Emperais, "and "Ramas," the tangled, shadowy branches creep menacingly like the kudzu vines of the South.
McDonough ended up in Brazil last June and July on a departmental grant from the Latin American studies program, interviewing descendents of pre-Civil War American settlers in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, a handful of Southern gentry packed up and moved to Brazil, a country where slavery was still practiced and where the climate was not unlike Alabama or Georgia. Their first colony was called Americana, and their first generation of children had names like "Jefferson" and "Sherman." Slowly, they began to assimilate into Brazilian customs and cultures.
McDonough says that many historians have held up Americana and the people of the surrounding region as examples of strong historical memory and preservation, but that most of the claims they make about historical recreation and active memory are based only on a yearly festival -- the Festa Confederada. On this one day each year, "the women dress up in old-fashioned American period gowns and make traditional southern foods," says McDonough, "but it's only during that one day that everything is well-preserved and remembered."
The history of Americana and the Confederate-Brazilian population were brought to McDonough's attention in Professor Mary Bensabat-Ott's Brazilian Culture and Civilization class. She was intrigued. "Basically, I wanted to know how the American descendents of Confederates identified themselves. Are theyrazilians? Are they Americans? Are they Confederates?"
McDonough added that she wanted to see how the Confederados remembered their heritage on a day-to-day basis, rather than just during their holidays. She lived with a host family and spent most of her time interviewing descendents of the American immigrants and visiting places like a famous cemetery in the region. She said that she found American traditions like the cooking of Southern-style biscuits and the making of patchwork quilts even in the home where she stayed.
Since returning, the photographer has nurtured her interest in Brazilian culture by joining the Hopkins capoeira club and continuing to study Portuguese.
The pictures in "Fazendas de Caf??" (which means "Coffee Plantations") were taken on a whim during a tour that McDonough took of an area called Limeira, near Americana, which included visits to five coffee plantations. "It was kind of like going back in time," she said, "and seeing old tools and antique-style technology. The buildings all showed a lot of wear, and it looked as if nothing had been bothered for a long time. One of the reasons why the photos don't include any people is that the buildings really show the age of the place."
McDonough says that there was no purposeful theme to the collection, but she ended up producing a very cohesive set of pictures. There is, however, a recurring motif of the pathway -- the one leading up to the little yellow church in "Santa Gertrudis" or the one leading to the door of the "Casa de Caf??".
"What really drew me to these pictures was this idea of the path," said McDonough. "These are paths that invite you into the picture and open it up for you." Again, the artist makes a statement that is as surprising as it is honest. She insists that she took these picture just wandering around looking at things, and that she has no training in photography, and that she did not purposefully compose the scenes the way she did. It is hard to believe indeed -- that these works composed with brilliant and contrasting color, strong, pervasive tone, and a somber, gothic feel, are the work of an accidental photographer.
"Fazendas de Caf??" is on display at One World Caf??, 100 W.University Parkway, until May 8.
