CHANGING RIO

Rio de Janeiro in the Olympic year. This metropolis is subject to massive change. A first image shows pre-fab cement modules for the new subway lines. Sports fields and stadiums aren’t enough: the whole city is being equipped with aboveground traffic facilities. They are for the athletes, visitors and above all the 12 million inhabitants. The dilapidated port district has been reawakened. And the port? It has been abandoned so that Rio can become a cultural and economic center. The city is supposed to radiate a bit of its old power and beauty, just like back then, when it had been Brazil’s capital until 1960. A policy of pacification has been introduced to the favelas in order to finally shake off the reputation of a city that is separated into rich and poor: the «Cidade Partida». For quite some time now, Rio has been the negative example of social inequality. Will this city of millions end up as a modernized and peaceful winner after the Olympic Games? Or will one only have memories of a big international event? Will nothing have otherwise changed? The photographer Michael von Graffenried has used these transformations as a point of departure for his concentrated view on a metropolitan area with millions of inhabitants. The fascinating result? Large-format, double-page panorama photographs from a Rio de Janeiro in the zero hour.

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