Greg Gibson Photography – Washington, DC’s Top Rated Wedding Photojournalist »

It seemed like I was cold all night on the 9 hour United flight from Dulles. Then it was cold all the next day waiting at the airport and cold again on the connector flight. However, when the aft doors opened on my TAM flight nearly 24 hours after leaving Washington and the heat rushed in so thick you needed a machete to hack through it, I knew I had arrived in Cuiabá.

Cuiabá is the capital of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and it is the gateway to any outsiders wanting access to the Pantanal, a large wetlands area about 1200 miles west of Sao Paulo or about 1600 miles west of Rio De Janiero.

The Pantanal is home to all kinds of exotic wildlife, from macaws and tucans to anaconda and jaguar. It’s also home to the Pantaneiro cowboys who are the reason for my being here. I have returned to Brazil for additional work on the “Cowboys and Crocodiles” project and continue research on this subject for a potential book. When I was here in August it was the dry season. It is now the beginning of the rainy season and it will be interesting to see how the change in climate affects the area.

I am also leading a Photo Expedition/Adventure with my friend Izan Petterle and 8 photography students.

This area is very remote, often accessible only by dirt roads. In fact, the Pantanal is traversed by the Transpanteneira Highway, which is a bit of a misnomer as this “highway” is really just a state maintained dirt road of deteriorating quality the further in you go.

I will try to blog periodically during the trip, but the days are long and internet access is sporadic and unpredictable. Here are a few images from the first couple of travel days.

The cliffs of Chapada Dos Guimaraes rise up above the highway at sunset. Chapada is east of Cuiabá and overlooks the Pantanal.

The late afternoon sun glows red through the tinted windows on Izan’s face during the drive to Chapada.

As we were driving a storm blew up suddenly and made for an interesting sunset. This is what happens during rainy season, large rainstorms move quickly across the area.

Once we were in the mountains we were treated to a fantastic view of the storm.

Passing through Cuiabá again on the way to the Pantanal.

We were invited to spend a couple of days at a Fazenda Promissao (fazenda is a ranch). Promissao means “Promised Land” but the drive there didn’t seem very promising. We weren’t able to connect with the ranchers until after dark and it was about 20km down a small dirt road.

The rains made the going rough at times.

Champion horses run across a pasture at Fazenda Promissao illuminated by a flashlight.

One of the things Promissao is famous for their original Pantaneiro cattle. Pantaneiro cattle are similar to Texas longhorn cattle. Most cattle in the area have been replaced or diluted by Indian cattle called Zebu, which have a hump like Brahma.

One of the many Pantaneiro horses at Promissao.

My friend and travel companion for the first week Herculano Bernardes with one of the many Champion horses at Promissao.

I only have time for just a quick post. I am back in Brazil to teach a workshop and more work on the cowboy project.

The picture below is of a crowd that gathered on the sidewalk while I was showing the Cowboys & Crocodiles slideshow on my computer at our table at an outdoor cantina in a little town called Poconé near the Pantanal.

In the small world category, it turns out that the lady at the bottom left is the sister of the owner of Fazenda Carendá, the ranch we spent the most time at during our trip here in August. She owns the restaurant we were dining in and we found out she was related purely by coincidence.

More Brazil posts to come as I find Internet access…

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Here’s a slideshow from my recent trip to Brazil and my Pantaneiro cowboy project.

The show can be found here or by clicking the image at right. The highlights version is about 13 minutes long.

If you want to see the epic movie version, click here. (25 minutes)

Both shows contain large images and may take a minute to load. It’s worth the wait!

Enjoy!

Last spring I was invited to speak at a very large photography convention in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The show, PhotoImage Brazil, was in August and I was fortunate to spend two wonderful weeks in Brazil as part of the convention. I’ll be posting more about my experiences as a speaker there in the next couple of days.

When PhotoImage Brazil show manager Duda Escobar first asked me to come and speak in Brazil I was a little ambivalent. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know anything about photography in Brazil or the market there.

When she asked a short time later if I could lead a workshop or a “PhotoExpedition” into a wilderness area called the Pantanal with a Brazilian photographer I didn’t know, I initially declined. Being away from home for two weeks during wedding season is very difficult for me.

I had no idea what a trip to this wild Pantanal region would entail. However the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a wonderful opportunity this was to explore a country I knew little about. Perhaps this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity that couldn’t pass. I soon called Duda and asked her to please put me in touch with the other photographer so that we could explore this idea together.

The “other” photographer turned out to be none other than Izan Petterle, a very gifted photographer from National Geographic, Brasil. After my first conversation with Izan I was completely at ease. Izan is an old hand at doing these “PhotoExpeditions” or adventures. He has been doing them successfully for years. His enthusiasm and knowledge of the area made me excited about the project and we agreed to proceed. Initially we wanted about 10-12 students to make this trip a real workshop. The only problem was that we were so late putting it together that we did not have time to advertise it adequately. As my departure for Brazil approached, we did not have any students signed up and we came close to canceling the Photo Expedition.

In the end, we decided that if nothing else, this Photo Expedition would be a good opportunity for both of us to get out and explore our own creative visions and tastes. It has been a long time since I worked on a project such as this and was hoping that a trip into the wilderness could rejuvenate my weary eyes. For the past 5 years I have photographed women in white dresses on nearly every Saturday during spring, summer and fall. It was time for a different kind of creative challenge.

I am so glad we came to this decision. My trip to Brazil in August was one of the highlights of my life. From the enthusiasm that I was greeted with by photographers at PhotoImage in Sao Paulo, to the humble, yet warm and proud hospitality offered me by the ranchers and cowboys in the Pantanal, this was a dream trip.

I have always known that personal projects are an important part of growing as an artist. However, knowing this and actually doing it are two different things. Between family obligations, work and other distractions I just never took an interest in pursuing a personal project. I have always been and I still am extremely passionate about photography. I have just reached that point in my life where I no longer live to work, I work to live. Carrying a camera around in my off time is not something I generally practice.

I cannot begin to tell you what a rewarding and educational experience this trip has been for me. This kind of documentary storytelling is the reason I became a photographer. It is the part of photojournalism that I loved the most. I am sorry that I let so much time pass before pursuing this type of in depth project again.

My new good friend Izan made a post on his National Geographic blog about our trip. In it, he talks about watching me work and the things he learned from me. Izan, my dear friend, learning is a two-way street. We learned from each other. I loved the enthusiasm with which Izan approached each day, the wonderful eye he has for light and his way of capturing ordinary scenes with a very artistic and abstract feel.

Even though Michael Jordan was the best basketball player in the world and Pele perhaps the best soccer player ever, both men needed coaches to help them grow even at the peak of their careers. Sadly many photographers work in relative isolation without exposure to new ideas and approaches. It is good to seek out a mentor or a source of inspiration, no matter what level your career is at.

I returned home to the US with renewed sense of purpose in my work. I see this newfound sense of excitement in the wedding images I have made each weekend since I left Brazil. I can’t wait to return in November for another Photo Expedition, another opportunity to photograph the Pantanerios, and another opportunity to stretch my creative legs.

More than anything else, I am glad that Izan is now among the best of my friends. I look forward to my every conversation with him and proceeding on this exciting journey down the TransPantaneira with him.

Here are a few images from the trip. The images were initially edited for a High Definition slideshow, and most have been cropped to a 16×9 HD format.