Unfortunately, I only had several hours of daylight to spend in São Paulo, so my "tour" was quite limited. However, I experienced enough of the city to say that with confidence that Sampa (as some locals refer to it) is a remarkable cosmopolitan metropolis that defies comparison to any single city I’ve been to. The closest analogue I can come up with would be an amalgamation of several cities…and to be honest, I still haven’t quite figured out exactly what those cities would be.

 

Despite the loads of research (and reconnaissance on Google Maps) I did in the weeks leading up to the trip, I was honestly surprised the level of energy, the amount of street art, and foot traffic throughout the city in the various neighborhoods that I visited. While São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are only barely 4 and a half hours driving distance apart (not counting inner-city traffic), the two cities seem almost a world away in terms of the way they both look and feel.

 

I’ll shut up and let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

I’ll be happy to elaborate with some additional context to the photos in the comments if anyone has any questions about them. I'll probably post a few more photos that didn't make the "first cut" at some point later this week...

 

(All photos in this post were taken on Monday, June 20, 2016)

 

 

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Obrigado!

De nada! :mrgreen:

awesome -- i raise a caipirinha to this thread!

 

i have been to sp twice ten years ago, also fairly briefly. i agree it defies description. and yes for sure the street art is truly off the charts across brazil -- it is clearly distinguished from the also ever present and unfortunate gang graffiti you can also see in some of your photos.

 

where did you take your panoramas? from a hotel?

 

 

Fascinating set, thanks... Bustling, interesting city though the graffiti is absolutely hideous and really detracts.

Fascinating set, thanks... Bustling, interesting city though the graffiti is absolutely hideous and really detracts.

 

My first thought.  WTF??  That's the worst I've seen anywhere, by far.  NYC slums don't have it as bad as what appears to be downtown.

Thanks for posting this set! Sao Paulo looks overwhelming and intense.  I definitely get some Berlin vibes, but on a much larger and denser scale.  Also, I'm curious as to when SP experienced its most dramatic period of growth.  In the photos where you can see the endless sea of buildings, it appears that many of them are fairly similar, and built from the same materials, and are all about the same height.  Kind of weird to see that, but I've noticed similar things from photos of cities in other developing nations.  You would think that there might be more of a range of architectural styles and materials.  I suppose it's kind of similar to what we're seeing now with Vancouver and Toronto, and all of the nearly identical glass towers that have been dominating those cities for the past decade or so.

I mean, when corruption is prevalent throughout Brazil and the economy is tanking, you'll have vacancy and crime run rampant. This is quite an eerie and foreboding gallery - I can imagine Venezuela going down this route now that its essentially a failed state.

I mean, when corruption is prevalent throughout Brazil and the economy is tanking, you'll have vacancy and crime run rampant. This is quite an eerie and foreboding gallery - I can imagine Venezuela going down this route now that its essentially a failed state.

 

Brazil’s always been one of the world’s biggest underachievers, it’s the size of the continental US and has a population of 200 million, but barely qualifies as a regional power let alone a global one.  Bloated government and the attendant corruption are the reasons.

 

In Rio, the Redeemer statue has been replaced as the city’s iconic symbol by a green swimming pool.

 

Thank you all for taking the time to respond... I def. appreciate the kind words and interesting comments!

 

clvlndr:

The funny thing is that when I look back upon these pictures, I don’t think they truly capture either the intensity of foot traffic, or the sheer amount of graffiti that covered the areas of the central city that I happened to visit. It’s also interesting that you mention the graffiti as hideous (I agree by the way!)…

 

I say "interesting" because the angular, sharp-edged pointed tags (not the murals, but the tags) you often see around São Paulo (notably seen in #8, #12, and #38 in the thread) are actually INTENDED by the “artists” to be UGLY and abrasive.

 

This a particular style of graffiti tagging called “pichação” or “pixação,” and started to gain popularity in the mid-1980s. The style of graffiti has become synonymous with a way to protest social and economic inequity in society and there is often competition among groups of “Pixo” artists to tag their names on the most “sacred” sites or highest-hard-to-reach floors of a building before anyone else.

 

edale:

I agree with you about the Berlin vibes! Also, generally speaking, the 20-year period between mid-1950s to the mid-1970s generally shaped the high-rise landscape of São Paulo (as well as many other Brazilian cities) as we know it today.  However, I have read that there was a *deliberate* effort among São Paulo government leaders in the 1940s and 1950s to use New York as a planning model to transform their city into and concrete metropolis. It’s kind of tragic to look at old photos of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and take note of what was lost.

 

 

Sherman Cahall & E Rocc: You’re absolutely right. The Brazilian people have unfortunately been failed by the destructive policies, corruption, and incompetence of their government for generations. Such a wonderful country with so much squandered potential.

 

There are very few cities that intimidate me when it comes to size and scope (having lived in NYC and visited London, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Lima, Buenos Aires, and other world capitals), but Sao Paulo scares the sh*t out of me. Some of these photos of skyscrapers stretching to the horizon are awe-inspiring and overwhelming at the same time. I'd love to visit, but would have zero idea where to start!

Your photography is stunning and I may be flamed for such a one-dimensional reaction but SP looks like a flavor of hell on earth. Curious in its repulsion.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another fantastic set - two questions:

 

1. I see a lot of people wearing hoodies, parkas, etc. - was it actually chilly when you were there?

2. Is that an abandoned skyscraper that we're looking at?

MayDay: 1) It was actually kinda chilly that day. The temperature was in the mid-50s during daytime (much chillier than the mid-70s daytime average temperature I that enjoyed in Rio). Incidentally a week earlier, São Paulo experienced the coldest temperatures they've had in over 20 years -with nighttime lows dipping into the 30's. Several homeless people actually froze to death outside in the cold that week. 2) It is an abandoned skyscraper. But not if you count the squatters I saw moving in the windows when I was taking the pictures.  8-)

 

Here is a view of the entrance (taken with my phone camera):

 

 

CMH_Downtown: In a way, I understand your reaction. Arriving into the city, I felt not only a rush of energy, but in Centro (Downtown), I initially felt a "sinister" vibe (due partly to the cloudy weather, partly due to the amount of graffiti and abandonment I saw on the shuttle bus ride from the airport, and partly due to the chaotic amount of foot traffic and energy I witnessed as soon as we stepped on the street),

 

I also felt extra paranoid about taking photos (not to mention flashing an expensive camera and phone). While waiting for the bus (to take me from the hotel into the city), a nice lady looked over and saw my camera and told me to "take care" and "be careful" with my camera. This was *after* another lady on the shuttle bus into town, was chatting it up with me about among other things, how much *more* unsafe she feels in Sao Paulo than Rio after living in SP for 15 years.

 

The sinister vibe lifted after about an hour or so, and I became to settle in with the "energy" of the city. Even after feeling comfortable walking around the city - even at night, there is an "edge" to the place that I can't quite put my finger on, that is both enticing and unnerving.