Postcards from Futsol — Rio de Janeiro
For this travel photography series, the idea is beautifully simple. We give a camera to football-loving creatives around the world and let them loose for a weekend to take a roll in a place they love.
We tasked Rio-based producer and photographer Bianca Baker with showing us the best side of her city.
"Rio is a melting pot," says Baker. "The privilege of having so much nature while living in a city is priceless. The mountains that tower over the skyscraper, the street markets that prove how nature’s colour pallet is more vibrant than any crayon in a box."
"Football is in Rio's blood. So many iconic players that have represented the national team came from clubs based in Rio."
"A vivid image for me is the vendors selling jerseys at city’s stop lights, especially when there is a match at the iconic Maracanã."
"You’ll see balconies adorned with club flags throughout the residential areas. You see pick up games happening at 2am when people who work until late get off and have time to lace up and play in a league of their own."
"The ideal weekend definitely starts with a big bowl of açai before heading for the beach. I would play a few hours of altinha or footvolley, traditional beach sports invented on the sands of Rio."
"Once the sun is almost set, I would bike over to Urca, a traditional neighbourhood right along the Guanabara Bay, and watch the sunset with a cold beer and pastel."
"You’ll see people play football with just about any object, a can, a ball of any other sport, a lime. It's very contagious and it’s an ongoing spectacle that doesn't only happen during a big game day."
"For these shots, I used a Pentax 67 medium format camera, and a Nikon FM2 35mm camera."
"The films I decided on was the Kodak Ektar 100, that really brings out the blues and reds on sunny sunny days (one of my favorites to shoot in daylight) and Cromo film Fuji Provia 100f of which I had some expired film. I really like how it brings out some amazing colour. The expired film brings an even more nostalgic atmosphere to the photos."
