Entry Title: " In a window of Prestes Maia 911 building"
Name: Julio Bittencourt, Brazil
Category: Professional, Collage


Entry Description: In the 911 of Prestes Maia Avenue, one of the biggest avenues situated in the heart of Sao Paulo, a gigantic two block building occupied by the MSTC (Movement of the homeless from the downtown) stands tall as it calls for attention. Two cinereous blocks, one day considered the most modern buildings of Latin America that has over 364 windows and where more than 460 families have been living since November 3rd of 2002. Forced to abandon the place where these people have learned to call home, more than 1.200 people who inhabited this building lived day after day a delicate situation with very few perspectives ahead of an uncertain future.

After living in New York for six years, Julio returned to Brazil in 2000 and started working at the newspaper Valor Economico in Sao Paulo as a photographer and assistant photo editor. In 2003 he moved to Mozambique where he worked for SOICO Communication Group. Since 2006 Julio has been working as an independent photographer. Julio's projects have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and his work published in magazines such as GEO, Stern, TIME, Le Monde, The Wall Street Journal, C Photo, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Esquire, French Photo, Los Angeles Times, and Leica World Magazine, among others. In 2008 he published his first book, “In a window of Prestes Maia 911 Building”, the culmination of a three year project featuring the residents of a squatted building in Sao Paulo. Julio's work resides in several public and private collections. More at: http://www.1500gallery.com/index.php?mode=text&section_id=89