Born in 1947, Irene graduated in History from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). She considered herself a self-taught photographer and worked her entire life with images, combining photography with historical research and creating her own language that valued people, cultural expressions, and collective memory. She also explored areas such as theater arts, music, and visual arts.
Irene Figueiredo SantosPhoto - Angelus Group/Promotion
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Black in Black and White
BookBlack in Black and White. Photo - Organization Irene Santos/Promotion
Irene's most known work is the bookBlack in Black and White - A Photographic History of the Black Population of Porto Alegrepublished in 2005.
The work brings together photographs and stories that help reconstruct the presence of Black people in the social and cultural formation of the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul. The photographs and stories in the book rescue the trajectories and experiences of Black families, a population often relegated to oblivion in official historiography.
In 2006, the book received the Açorianos Literature Award, in the Special Literature category.
When speaking about the project during an interview in 2021 to the newspaper,Brazil of FactIrene stated that the book proved the existence of honest and working black people in a racist city like Porto Alegre.
"Analog photography ensured the heroic resistance of an 'invisible population' that was at risk of being erased from the city's historical annals," he said.
Other works
Irene Santos is also the author of the book.Colonists and Quilombolas - Memories of African Colonies in Porto AlegreAnd the web documentary OthersCarnivals - Memory of Porto Alegre's Street Carnival, 1930–1969As well as several other publications, exhibitions, and theater plays.
This year, Irene's work gained prominence once again at the Museum of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul with the exhibitionThe Power of Memory.