Throckmorton Fine Art is pleased to offer an exhibit of elegant, large-format photographs of the African landscape taken by one of Brazil’s most acclaimed photographers, Christian Cravo. There are rich nuances in the photographs, which are masterfully printed. There are twenty-eight photographs in the exhibit, all in black-and-white.

The photographs capture the singular and majestic beauty of the landscape and wildlife of Southern Africa. These images show an Africa that has existed for centuries but that is now endangered, both by human encroachment and by climate change. The photographs are a reminder of the wonders of the world but also of the pressing need for stewardship.

Still, Cravo’s photographs are never picturesque. They are quiet studies of form and shapes, and of light and shadow. At times images, including of the markings of animals and of geological formations, are almost studies of abstraction. Cravo manages to make timeless subjects for photographs fresh and appealing to our contemporary aesthetic sensibilities. The critic Ligia Canonga aptly praises Cravo for “recovering the poetic potential for photography.” Cravo reaches us; he elicits empathy.

As a Brazilian, Cravo is keenly aware of the importance of Africa and Africans in the making of the Americas (forty percent of Africans brought to the Americas were taken to Brazil). Cravo has worked in the Brazilian city most associated with those of African descent, Salvador, in the northeastern state of Bahia. He has also worked in Haiti. Cravo has a long engagement with Africa, having worked in the continent for fifteen years. This exhibit offers a final selection of his photographs from Africa, drawn from his last years of working in the continent (his stay ended in 2022)

Cravo, born in 1974, of a Danish mother and a Brazilian father, is richly steeped in art. His paternal grandfather was a sculptor, and his father was a noted photographer. Cravo is well educated and well-traveled— and it shows in his work. Cravo’s photographs have been the subject of many individual and group exhibits, and his work is in the collection of noted museums throughout the world.

The exhibit deserves to be viewed. The images are compelling, and, in a quiet manner, also a beacon for environmental awareness.