Klaus Mitteldorf

Klaus Mitteldorf (pseudonym Klaus Meiodavila , born June 23, 1953 in São Paulo ) is a Brazilian photographer and documentary filmmaker who in the mid-1970s attracted attention primarily with photos and films from the then little-known Brazilian surfing scene .

Life

Klaus Mitteldorf grew up as the son of a German and a Brazilian in São Paulo and attended a German-speaking school there. At the age of twelve he got his first camera from his father, a Yashica Mimi , with which he photographed and experimented a lot, but without any ambitions to make a career out of it. At eighteen he went to a school in Europe, returned to Brazil in 1974 and began studying architecture at the Braz Cubas University in Mogi das Cruzes . He graduated in 1979, but without ever working as an architect. Mitteldorf lives in São Paulo.

Career

At the university, Mitteldorf met fellow students from the surfing scene, about whom he had known little until then, who invited him to come to the beach with them. He also got fun surfing himself, but without too much passion. But he was thrilled to capture this sport and everything that goes with it on the beach. The following year his first photos appeared in and on the cover of Surf magazine from Rio de Janeiro .

One of his friends got a Super 8 camera that year and encouraged him to film it too. In 1975 he made his first one and a half hour long documentary film, Terral , which he himself, without any experience in it, edited at home and added music to it. With this film, which is considered to be the first on this subject in Brazil, he was so successful that he was invited many times to show it.

After photos of him were published in various Brazilian magazines such as Pop , Claudia Moda , Casavogue , Vogue and Veja , Klaus Mitteldorf had his first solo exhibitions in Rio and São Paulo in 1981/82. During this time he founded his own studio and worked for many large agencies, including in Germany, where he lived from 1988 to 1996. To date, he has published various illustrated books around the world, including in Germany and Switzerland. In addition to many solo exhibitions, he also took part in group exhibitions.

Since the 1980s, Klaus Mitteldorf has also made a name for himself as a fashion and nude photographer as well as with experimental photography. In 2008 he was awarded the Overseas Photographer Prize of the Higashikagawa City Photo Festival in Japan .

Mitteldorf's first feature film, "Vou Nadar até Você" (I'll swim to you) with Bruna Marquezine and Peter Ketnath , premiered on August 19, 2019 at the Gramado Film Festival and was released on March 5, 2020 in Brazil. He directed and wrote the script.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 2013: Work Klaus Mitteldorf 1983–2013 , Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo
• 2011: The Last Cry , Galerie Adler, Paris Photo, Paris
• 2011: São Paulo Blues , Museu da Imagem e do Som , São Paulo
• 2008: Cries and Visions , Higashikawa, Japan
• 2006: Introvisão , Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo , São Paulo
• 2001: Katharsis , Estação Clínicas do Metrô e Espaço Paul Mitchell, São Paulo
• 2000: Museu da Imagem e do Som, Salvador (Bahia)
• 2000: O Último Grito , Galeria dos Arcos, Usina do Gasômetro, Porto Alegre
• 1999: O Último Grito , Museu Metropolitano de Arte, Curitiba
• 1998: O Último Grito , Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo
• 1995: Divas , Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, São Paulo
• 1993: Klaus Mitteldorf Photographs , Palacete IBM, Curitiba
• 1993: Klaus Mitteldorf Photographs , Fundação Prometeus Libertus, Florianópolis
• 1992: Klaus Mitteldorf Photographs , Casa da Fotografia Fuji, São Paulo
• 1989: Norami , Galeria São Paulo, São Paulo
• 1982: Fiorucci Gallery, Rio de Janeiro
• 1982: Galeria Itaú, São Paulo

Book publications

• 2016: Next. Editoria Damiani, Bologna 2016, ISBN 978-8-86208-456-7
• 2013: Photographs 1983–2013. Editoria Damiani, Bologna 2013, ISBN 978-8-86208-291-4
• 2011: São Paulo Blues. Editora Terra Virgem, São Paulo 2011, ISBN 978-8-58598-159-4
• 2006: Introvisão. Editora Cosac & Naify, São Paulo 2006, ISBN 978-85-7979-060-7
• 2005: Almaquática , (with David Carson and Sidney Tenucci). Editora Terra Virgem, São Paulo 2005, ISBN 978-8-58598-144-0
• 2005: Mermaids , (with Sven Hoffmann ). Gingko Press, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 978-1-58423-218-6
• 2005: Coleção SENAC de Fotografia: Klaus Mitteldorf , Volume 9, (with texts by Simonetta Persichetti and Thales Trigo). Editora SENAC, São Paulo 2005, ISBN 978-857359-466-9
• 2001: Katharsis , (with Alexandre Dórea Ribeiro). Editora DBA, São Paulo 2001, ISBN 978-8-57234-219-3
• 1998: O Último Grito , (with Rubens Fernandes Júnior). Editora Terra Virgem, São Paulo 1998, ISBN 978-2-88046-361-8
• 1992: International Nude Photograph. Verlag Gerhard Götze, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-2-88046-092-1
• 1992: Photographs , (with texts by Reinhold Mißelbeck and Luis Paulo Baravelli). Art Forum, Basel 1992, ISBN 3-92322-405-2
• 1989: Norami. RotoVision Verlag, Mies , Switzerland / Watson-Guptill Verlag, New York 1989, ISBN 978-2-88046-092-1
• 1993: portfolio. Verlag Agenes Schwenzel, Nuremberg 1993

Web links

• Klaus Mitteldorf in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Klaus Mitteldorf's official website (Portuguese / English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interview with Klaus Mitteldorf from February 25, 2016 (Portuguese)
2. ↑ Klaus Mitteldorf's website (Portuguese / English)
3. ↑ "Vou nadar Até Você" release info in the IMDb