Residency - The Order of Things

In 2023, we undertook a photographic investigation into the history of the representation of the Amazon. This project arose from our shared interest in ecology, as well as our desire to merge our individual research into a collective initiative. We conducted this research with the support of the Krajcberg space and curator and researcher Laila Melchior.

Our project “The Order of Things” explores the history of the complex relationship between the West and the Amazon rainforest. To conduct this visual investigation, we have chosen to draw on images dating from the past few centuries, preserved in iconic institutions such as the Louvre, the Musée du Quai Branly, the Jardin des Plantes, the Mobilier National/Les Gobelins, the National Herbarium, as well as in private collections.  The underlying hypothesis is that the image of the Amazon rainforest produced by the West over the centuries reveals more about us than about the forest itself.

To test this hypothesis, we examined a number of images, objects, and places depicting the Amazon rainforest. We then photographed them in the contexts in which they were displayed in order to better understand the frame of reference of their creators and commissioners. Thus, using the language of photography and a methodical approach, we sought to discern how these image-makers gave shape to their perception of the world and how they structured the reality that presented itself before them.

One thing becomes clear: over the centuries, this territory and its forms of life have often been portrayed in a passive light, serving as a backdrop for explorers, scientists, and adventurers, who projected their fears and fantasies onto it, oscillating between fascination and a desire for domination. On a purely metaphysical level, these images illustrate the Western view of nature as an external entity—whether it is simply regarded as a reserve of raw materials to be exploited or as something to be contemplated. This view always implies that human beings and their societies are not an integral part of nature.

We created our images using a view camera and large-format slides, a choice driven by our desire to achieve the greatest possible precision. Through this approach, we sought to examine the fantasy of transparency and objectivity characteristic of Western modernity, which the medium of photography has often illustrated. Paradoxically, the profusion of information present in each image does not necessarily lead us to a better understanding of the subjects we present. This overabundance of objectivity tends to shift the image toward a form of abstraction and offers the audience the opportunity to see themselves being seen.”

At the Research and Post-Production Studio, Livia Melzi and Emilio Azevedo are continuing their research, focusing in particular on the formal completion of the project *The Order of Things*.