Bate-Bola - Rio Secret Carnival #097, 2018

Vincent Rosenblatt  

Bate-bola #097 - Os Dias Eram Assim, Muquiço, Guadalupe, Rio de Janeiro 2018. Fine-art print on baryta paper. 60x40 cm. Edition 2/8.

This dynamic artwork captures a performer mid-motion against a gritty favela backdrop. The subject, donned in vibrant, traditional attire, merges elements of cultural heritage with contemporary energy. The bate-bola Carnival costume, replete with bold oranges, deep reds, and intricate patterns, juxtaposes strikingly against the muted, urban surroundings. In one hand, the performer balances an ornate parasol, while the other elegantly holds a fan, both accessories enhancing the theatricality of the scene. The background features dramatic plumes of smoke, adding depth and an element of mystique. The artist masterfully uses lighting to accentuate the figure's graceful stance, creating a vivid contrast between light and shadow. This piece is a powerful fusion of movement and stillness, tradition and modernity, capturing a moment that is both ephemeral and timeless.

The series dedicated to Bate-Bola — the carnival of Rio's northern and western neighborhoods — transcends simple reportage: it reveals an aesthetic of trance, an alteration of perception in which the street becomes a sacred stage.

Bate-Bola is a carnival tradition from the outskirts of Rio: costumed groups with flamboyant masks, colorful capes, and bursts of sound parade through the streets, transforming them into an ephemeral theater. Drawing from multiple influences — from European Pierrot figures to Afro-Brazilian spiritualities and even pop culture — it condenses excess, invention, and collective vitality.

Vincent Rosenblatt does not photograph from the outside: he immerses himself, dances with the participants, capturing the visual lightning of the moment. Flashes, saturated colors, and tight framing convey the luminous violence of the carnival and open onto a hallucinatory experience. More than mere evidence, his images are icons: they erase the boundaries between document and vision, memory and apparition. This work forms a counter-narrative to the favelas, often reduced to violence by the media. Here, they assert themselves as centers of creativity and dignity.

Each photograph becomes a passage, a threshold crossed into an altered reality where the street is transfigured into a mythological stage. In this sense, Vincent Rosenblatt creates not only a living archive but a body of work fully situated within the field of contemporary photography, where popular art enters into dialogue with the avant-garde.

“I seek images that convey the trembling of reality… that moment of big bang, of original chaos when suddenly we are no longer in observation, but in enchantment."