salvador, the capital of the state of bahia, is a unique and special city. the state of bahia itself holds a special place in the brasilian identity - it is the heart of the afro-brasilian culture, a place of extreme contrasts, stunning natural and architectural beauty, obscene poverty, the most progressive racial relations, the most regressive and conservative 'boss' society and politics. it houses brasil's spiritual soul, with its magical ability to blend clashing religious cultures ranging from strong and conservative catholicism to ethereal animalism - candomble, macumba, espiritismo.

i feel that Bahia gives brasil a particular spice, adding immensily to its essence in a way that is fundamental to the brasilian soul. it contribues many of the crucial seeds to the awesome repertoire of all important brasilian arts, from music, cinema, literature to the physical arts. brasil itself is a country, a society, of blendings. at its best, it accomodates the vibrancy and imagination of various cultures. at its worst it pits the have and have nots in vicious and often extremely violent clashes. it is beautiful and obscene, happy and desperately unjust, violent and inherently warm and peaceful. in a way it is like america, filled with strong contradictions. i think thats the inevitable result for any society which opens itself to diverse influences and which feeds its soul and growth on this kind of dynamic meshing. and bahia offers the visitor extreme samples of all of these contradictions.

salvador, as the capital, is the core of these realities. it is a visually stunning hilly city on the shores of the ocean. it is always on, always pulsating with the beats of the tambores, the poetic legacy of olodum and slave culture. it is brasils version of mississipi, rich and poor in equal measures, and home to brasils own version of the blues. pelourinho, its renovated artistic centre, is a colourful collection of gorgeous buildings and churches dating from the earliest colonial years. its nightlife is legendary, from free jazz in museums to little barzinhos with authentic and organic samba. carnaval here is also reputed to be fantastic, and very different from the carnaval of rio, sao paulo and other southern towns - up here it is more participatory and communal, the trio electrico resembling an open platform pulling the masses behind.

salvador is also a great staging post for the discovery of the awesome nature which covers its landscapes, from arid deserts in the inlands, to fantastic rock formations in the centre, and some of brasils best coastal areas including praia do forte, morro de sao paulo, boipeba, and on and on.

i hope these first few black and white fotos distill its essences. to see other views of bahia, take a look at my photos of boipeba, morro de sao paulo, praia do forte, chapada de lencois, and rio sao francisco.

its amazing how squeezed everyone is in a country as large, and as relatively empty, as brasil. i read somewhere that something like 75% of the population lives along the immense coastline. that leaves the rest of this continent-sized country relatively empty. but it does seem perverse how people choose to live in suffocating squalor (not in these houses, but for example, in the burgeoning favelas - shantitowns-) in order to scrape a meager living in a country with such abundant resources and possibilities.

 

 

 

one of the most interesting things about brasilian society is its complex relationship with religion. officially brasil is a catholic country, andthe church is everywhere and relatively powerful as a social and cultural force. in recent decades protestant movements have made significant inroads into the population, particularly the poor and desperate sections where religious missionaries find easier prey. then there are a number of smaller religious communities, affiliated with pockets of immigrant populations, from jewish to shinto to islamic, to new ageism, to african animalist faiths. i find it fascinating to see how they blend into something brasilian, often adapting themselves to the popular culture and in that process reshaping what it is to be brasilian.

as you can see from these photos there are always lots of churches and crosses, and unlike in europe where many churches stand as empty vessels of architectural glory, in brasil they are very much still used for their original purpose. brasilians, it is my impression, are genuinely religious. but fascinatingly, and i think very healthily, brasilians dont come across as excessively pious, serious or judgemental. in fact, unless you are dealing with one of the modern american-style evangelists, brasilians as a rule are very flexible, very tolerant and charmingly good humoured about their faith, and not at all into forcefully imposing their beliefs on others. there is healthy debate about religion in the media, and religion is often made fun of and ridiculed just like all other main aspects of brasilian culture. in my experience brasil is in many ways very progressive, liberal, irreverant, sexually and gender-ly open, and that is one of its geratest attributes. i do hope we dont go the american or iranian way and lose our open and dynamic cultural identity in the altar of demagogery, absolutism and religious fanaticism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is pelourinho, in colour. its superbly colourful and tightly packed, up and down steep cobbles-tone hills. there are loads of good little restaurants and bars, and because it is the heart of the tourist attraction in bahia it is very safe, which in th e larger brazilian cities is something to consider. pelourinho is also very musical and a lot of fun.