I was born in Stockholm and grew up in Rio
de Janeiro with my parents (Swedish mother and Brazilian father) three brothers and one sister. I always had
the opportunity to stay in contact with both cultures and I often traveled to
Sweden to visit my relatives. I knew the adventures of Pippi since I was I
child. Astrid Lindgren is very famous in Europe, but not in South America and Brazil,
so my expectations towards the project Pippi in Rio was to pay a tribute
to Astrid Lindgren doing a photographic essay based on her most famous
character Pippi Longstocking.
But I needed to find a child-actress-model who looked similar to Pippi and who would like to play the role. I was lucky to find this wonderful girl, Anouk Van der Zee (her mother is Dutch and her father Brazilian), who was 9 years old at that time and also a great fan of Pippi. So we made a small production arranging the clothes, hair and some make-up and planned the places we would like to photograph like the Ipanema beach, at the Vidigal favela and in hers "Villa Villekula" inside the Tijuca Forest National Park. Some pictures were well planned like the one that she's lifting a big jiu-jitsu fighter (after all Pippi is the stronguest girl in the world) and the one she's playing capoeira with the kids, but others were just spontaneous like when she's jumping in front of the Ipanema beach or sitting in a sofa.
What I tried to do was to add aspects of the characters nature and personality to the images like strengness, friendship, detachment to formal rules, imagination and adventurous spirit. I couldn't do it without Anouk who was just perfect (pay attention to her expressions in the photos. She was not just a good model, but an actress who actually got involved in this project). The exhibition Pippi in Rio was shown in both countries, Brazil and Sweden. It was presented at the Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal (Rio de Janeiro, 25/01/2003 to 18/02/2003) and at the Junibacken (Stockholm, 24/08/2005 to 08/09/2005). In 2006 the photos was also shown in differents public librarys throughout Sweden.
But I needed to find a child-actress-model who looked similar to Pippi and who would like to play the role. I was lucky to find this wonderful girl, Anouk Van der Zee (her mother is Dutch and her father Brazilian), who was 9 years old at that time and also a great fan of Pippi. So we made a small production arranging the clothes, hair and some make-up and planned the places we would like to photograph like the Ipanema beach, at the Vidigal favela and in hers "Villa Villekula" inside the Tijuca Forest National Park. Some pictures were well planned like the one that she's lifting a big jiu-jitsu fighter (after all Pippi is the stronguest girl in the world) and the one she's playing capoeira with the kids, but others were just spontaneous like when she's jumping in front of the Ipanema beach or sitting in a sofa.
What I tried to do was to add aspects of the characters nature and personality to the images like strengness, friendship, detachment to formal rules, imagination and adventurous spirit. I couldn't do it without Anouk who was just perfect (pay attention to her expressions in the photos. She was not just a good model, but an actress who actually got involved in this project). The exhibition Pippi in Rio was shown in both countries, Brazil and Sweden. It was presented at the Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal (Rio de Janeiro, 25/01/2003 to 18/02/2003) and at the Junibacken (Stockholm, 24/08/2005 to 08/09/2005). In 2006 the photos was also shown in differents public librarys throughout Sweden.
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