Great images from Brazil

To make this page more interesting to our visitors we have chosen images that are available as posters, from the spectacular aerial photo of Rio de Janeiro to the image of Brazil's famous export to Hollywood: Carmen Miranda, shown below.

Carmen Miranda
8 in. x 10 in.
Buy this Photo at AllPosters.com
Framed   Mounted
In addition to the images from Brazil above, all available as posters, we have included some images that are copyright free and not available for resale.

Enjoy these spectacular images from Brazil - visual expressions from this large and culturally diverse country!

Bahia

The elements of Brazil come together most perfectly in the images and the culture of Bahia, in terms of art, mysticism and music. No other state has so well assimilated the mixture of African, indigenous and Portuguese elements in its cuisine, culture and religious life. These three races came together in such a way that the whole nation was illuminated by their influence.

This state, therefore, continues to be the main centre in the country of the Candomblé (this and other terms come from the Yoruba language of West Africa), the syncretism of African origin which lives side by side with the Catholic church.

In its ceremonies, babalorixás, ialorixás, and iaôs (priests or counsellors represented as spiritual "fathers" and "mothers", and their spiritual "sons" - younger members) dress in traditional costumes, see the image above, dance and sing to the sound of the atabaques (long tubular drums struck with the hand) and agogôs (handheld bell-like instruments), and make offerings to the saints.

These rituals invoke the Orixás, spiritual beings who correspond in some ways to the Catholic saints.

However, these cults and the Catholic church have never found it easy to coexist, and even at the end of the 20th century there is still tension between them. For a long time, the Catholic leaders pressured the police into repressing the Candomblé, and even now, when it has become more or less accepted, the church continues to be ambivalent in its disapproval of those inclined to be tolerant.

More images from Brazil