Avenida Paulista

Avenida Paulista is the most renowned thoroughfare of São Paulo, Brazil. While living on the avenue as an exchange student in 2001, I became fascinated by this microcosm of São Paulo life. A year later, fresh out of school, I dedicated myself to documenting the quotidian life on the street. Initially home to wealthy coffee barons and later to multinational banks, the two-mile avenue has long been a symbol of Brazil’s economic prosperity as well as a public space for self expression. From the Museum of Art of São Paulo to the numerous antennae that crown building tops, Avenida Paulista's monuments have become a postcard for the city. Despite being one of São Paulo’s most photographed landmarks, few photographers have trained their lens on the life of the iconic street. Avenida Paulista looks beyond the familiar structures of the avenue and explores the diversity and contrasts created by the hundreds of thousands of people that inhabit the street every day.