Forro Folk Musicians

by Morgan Kazanjian

Forró, a musical style famous for its inclusion of the accordion, triangle and zabumba has evolved over time, now including a array of instruments in a variety of styles. Already familiar with Forró music from growing up in Brazil, Luiz Maximiano was given the opportunity to photograph folk musicians for Veja, a widely publicized weekly news magazine in Brazil.

They wanted a series of portraits of folk musicians of a very particular regional rhythm from the Northeast of Brazil. … I loved this chance as it gave me the opportunity to work with some very expressive artists and that gives me a lot of room to create the mood that I wanted them to transmit through their portraits.

While it was commissioned work, Luiz had a lot of freedom to approach the project as he saw fit.

I had carte blanche to do whatever I wanted. Total trust from my editors to create. … I suggested to use the same canvas background for all of them.

While he had a lot of creative freedom, the project didn’t come without difficulties. Luiz spent three weeks traveling around with the huge canvas and studio lights under his arms. It was definitely worth it though, as people have been greatly enjoying the images.

We don’t see a lot of black and white in magazines in Brazil anymore and general reactions were very positive. I think I succeeded in getting the mood and the spirit of Forró music into the images. People who like and know that music love the photos.

To Luiz, one of the greatest things about shooting this project was how it allowed him to explore new things and grow as an artist.

If you do the same [thing] over and over again you tend to rely too much in what you already know. When you’re doing something new, you get challenged to create something different and you’re put into a position where you will eventually evolve as a photographer.

To see more of Luiz’s work, check out his website.