Copan

Back in the beginning of my career, for some reason that still remains unknown, the editors of BIG Magazine NYC decided to invite me to be part of a special edition dedicated to Oscar Niemeyer along with some Gods of art in Brazil. My mission was to cover the Copan, a building with more than 2,000 residents, divided into 4 apartment groups. Some were studios, 1 bedrooms, two bedrooms and apartments that were 300 square meters. A vertical city, home to people of all sorts of different types and social classes.

In my eyes the beauty of this architectural work of Niemeyer goes far beyond the perfect lines of construction itself.

The social and cultural miscellany that his work provides is a rare piece of art so I decided to shoot not only outside the building with all its angles, but also the interior, and the many lives that lived inside this masterpiece.

I spent three months going from door to door, asking to come in, getting to know the  people and photographing them. I found a little bit of everything, from prostitutes and pimps to the successful owner of a French bookstore, a gay helicopter pilot, illegal immigrants, writers, militants, retired people, architecture students, skateboarders, religious leaders, musicians.... it was an endless sensation that only a masterpiece like this could put together or bring these very different people together.

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