Miguel Rio Branco
Miguel Rio Branco (born 1946) is a Brazilian photographer, painter, and filmmaker (director and cinematographer). His work has focused on Brazil and included photojournalism, and social and political criticism. Rio Branco was an Associate Member of Magnum Photos.
Also recorded as Miguel da Silva Paranhos di Rio Branco · Rio Branco
Miguel Rio Branco
Carlos Ebert from São Paulo, BrazilGRU · Miguel Rio Branco - Photographer · CC BY 2.0
- Known for
- photography
- Born
- 1946
- Birthplace
- Las Palmas
- Nationality
- Brazil
- Occupation
- photographer · painter · film director · camera operator
- Honours
- Order of Cultural Merit (Brazil)
- Languages
- Portuguese
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Miguel Rio Branco (born 1946) is a Brazilian photographer, painter, and filmmaker (director and cinematographer). His work has focused on Brazil and included photojournalism, and social and political criticism. Rio Branco was an Associate Member of Magnum Photos.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Miguel Rio Branco. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q6015029 · wikipedia · Miguel Rio Branco
In this article
Biography
Biography
His photographs are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Key facts
Key facts
• Known for — photography • Born — 1946 • Birthplace — Las Palmas • Notable Works — Silent Book • Website — www.miguelriobranco.com.br
Life and work
Life and work
Rio Branco was born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands. His parents were diplomats and he spent his childhood in Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil and the United States. In 1976 he moved to New York City, where he earned a BA, and took a one-month vocational course at the New York Institute of Photography. In 1978, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and studied at the Industrial Design College. He became an Associate Member of Magnum Photos in 1980. He lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. Rio Branco's Silent Book (1997) is included in Parr and Badger's The Photobook: A History, Volume II.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1946
Miguel Rio Branco was born in 1946 at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Publications by Rio Branco
• Dulce Sudor Amargo. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1985.. • Nakta. Brazil: Multiprint Grafica, 1996. • Silent Book. São Paulo: Cosac & Naify. 1997.. • Second edition, 2012. • Miguel Rio Branco: An Aperture Monograph. New York: Aperture, 1998.. • Pele do Tempo. Brazil: Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, 1999. • Entre Los Ojos. Barcelona: Fundación "la Caixa", 1999.. Text in Spanish and English. • Miguel Río Branco habla con Teresa Siza. Conversaciones con Fotografos. La Fábrica, 2002.. In Spanish. • Entre os Olhos, o Deserto. Brazil: Cosac & Naify, 2002.. • Gritos Surdos. Portugal: Centro Portugues de Fotografia, 2002. • Plaisir la Douleur. France: Textuel, 2005.. • Out Of Nowhere. Luste, 2009.. • Você está feliz? Cosac & Naify, 2012.. • Mechanics of Women. La Fábrica, 2017.. • New York Sketches. Xavier Barral, 2018..
Short films by Rio Branco
• Trio Elétrico • Caveirinhas • Nada Levarei Quando Morrer = those who owe me will be charged in hell – 20 minute documentary with still and moving images • Entre os Olhos o Deserto • Gritos Surdos
Collections
• Museum of Modern Art, New York: 37 works (as of May 2019) • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 25 works (as of May 2019)
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Miguel Rio Branco received Order of Cultural Merit (Brazil). Recorded as photographer, painter, film director and camera operator.
Recognition and collections
Work by Miguel Rio Branco is
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Museum of Modern Art
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Miguel CalderónPhotographer
- Miguel FleitasPhotographer
- Miguel GómezPhotographer
- Miguel ReveriegoPhotographer
- Miguel-Ángel CárdenasPhotographer
- Mihael MilunovićPhotographer
- Mihkel MathiesenPhotographer
- Miho KajiokaPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Miguel Rio Branco?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.