Title: Bobare
Photographer(s): Paolo Gasparini
Writer(s): Paolo Gasparini
Designer(s): Ricardo Báez
Publisher(s): Carmen Araujo Arte, Caracas, Venezuela
Year: 2019
Print run:
Language(s): Spanish
Pages: 40
Size: 29 x 38 cm
Binding: Journal
Edition:
Print: Ex Libris, Caracas, Venezuela
Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: Venezuela,1959
ISBN:
The first edition of Bobare (1959) was a modest 16-page publication, illustrated with 30 pictures and authorised by the editors of the magazine Cruz del Sur (1951-1961), the brothers Alfredo and Violeta Roffé and Fernando Mieres. With photographs and text by Paolo Gasparini, it was circulated as an insert in the special issue (47-48) that said publication was dedicated to agrarian reform. This excerpt is perhaps the first ‘committed’ print illustrated with photographs made in Venezuela, as it makes visible the poverty of a rural community.
In Bobare, Gasparini uses the strategy of denunciation through interviews with the characters portrayed: mayor, doctor, police, housewives, nurses, workers and the unemployed, who comment on their work, express desires for change and give or give opinions on the situation of the government . It is worth noting that each character is identified with a brief description at the bottom of the photo that includes name, surname and profession, a method that had never been used before in publications in the country and that, in general, is never considered by photographers and editors in books and photographic works. Furthermore, Gasparini photographs the environment: the four weakened houses in the village, the desert landscape and the private space, representing a fragile and poor agrarian context. The text describes the geographical location of the municipality, the number of inhabitants and also the distribution of the budget obtained from the collection of taxes: the expenses distributed in payments for electricity, the police and the school canteen, among others. The photographer structures the chronicle using images and words, articulating the voice of the interviewees in a descriptive text of the adverse situation.
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