Picturing the World from Immersive to Eternal, with Claudio Edinger

Above Photograph © Claudio Edinger

When it comes to photography, Claudio Edinger has a Midas touch. Equally celebrated for his immersive photo series, the intimacy of his portraits, and his aerial views that conjure a sense of the eternal through selective focus, his compulsion for research drives adjustments to his photographic strategy from one project to the next.

In today’s show, we unpack the many facets of Claudio’s storied career, from his arrival in New York and early documentation of Brooklyn’s Hasidic community in the late 1970s to the environmental portraits he made inside Manhattan’s infamous Chelsea Hotel, and beyond. 

Learn the backstory to his fortuitous connection with master portraitist Philippe Halsman, and the influence this had on his photographic vocabulary. We also discuss Claudio’s aerial imagery made from helicopters and drones, and debate the slippery slope between noteworthy content, image quality, and resolution.

As a longtime disciple of meditation, Claudio’s approach to photography is equally influenced by the underlying flow of energy essential to life on this planet, which led him to state, “I'm open to whatever the universe brings my way. But the universe has to conspire in your favor. My whole life has been like that. I've been guided. My intuition brings me to places, and the place drags me into it.”

Guest: Claudio Edinger
Episode Timeline:

3:03: Claudio’s beginnings in photography while studying economics in Sao Paulo, and his first exhibit at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art.

4:55: A move to New York in 1976 and a two-year project on Brooklyn’s Hasidic community.

8:42: Connecting with master portrait photographer Philippe Halsman, and how this expanded Claudio’s vocabulary as a photographer.

15:35: A move to the Chelsea Hotel and a new photographic strategy to make environmental portraits of the building and its residents.

19:52: The influence of August Sander’s work, and Claudio’s pursuit of intimacy to create images with universal meaning.

25:22: The organic path of Claudio’s photographic approach, and how he developed his selective focus technique. 

28:15: Episode Break

29:06: The predictable visual effect of a Hasselblad’s square frame, combined with a tripod and flash for portraits of patients in a Brazilian insane asylum.

33:06: Using the same techniques to capture the insanity inside an institution, as well as to photograph the institutionalized insanity of Brazilian Carnival. 

37:51: Claudio’s assignment work, plus his time as a New York paparazzo and the lessons this taught him. 

39:28: Claudio’s experience as a war photographer in El Salvador, and the urgency of living connected to war. 

43:42: Shifting to a 4x5 Toyo camera to further explore the tilt-shift look of selective focus.  

48:57: The shortcomings of large format that forced Claudio to shift to digital and then discover aerial photography.  

54:17: Comparing aerial photos from a helicopter with those made from a drone, plus Claudio’s thoughts on viewing the world from the point of view of eternity.

Guest Bio: Claudio Edinger is one of Brazil’s preeminent photographers. After studying economics at Mackenzie University in São Paulo in the early 70s, he turned his attention to photography, and he hasn’t stopped since. 

Edinger moved to New York City in 1976, and during the 20 years he spent in the US, he completed immersive photo essays about the Hasidic community of Brooklyn, the denizens of Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel, and habitués of LA’s Venice Beach. He also freelanced for Brazilian and North American publications such as Veja, Time, Life, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Magazine, among many others. 

The author of more than twenty books, Edinger’s photographs have been collected worldwide and exhibited by institutions such as New York’s International Cen