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All I want is a room somewhere
This book is the winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, made each year to photographic books in a range of categories, and was originally published in the photographer’s native Brazil. It centres around what is thought to have been the biggest squat in the world: 911 Prestes Maia, a 22-storey tower block in central S„o Paulo, the largest city in Brazil and the childhood home of photographer Julio Bittencourt. In 2006 the abandoned building was home to an estimated 1630 people including 468 families with 315 children - a mini city within a very big one. In 2002 the ‘Movement for the Homeless’ had moved hundreds of homeless families into the empty building, who in turn made the place habitable, even going as far as providing a library, cinema and workshops. Then out of the blue, in March of 2006, the inhabitants learned they were going to be evicted within a month. Julio Bittencourt has photographed the diverse occupants at their windows, from which they communicate with each other, recording the happiness and dignity in coexistence with decay and neglect. This is a cry for action on behalf of an entire class whose existence is threatened and who some would have gone altogether.
In a Window of Prestes Maia 911 Building, by Julio Bittencourt, is published by Dewi Lewis Publishing at £19.95, ISBN 9781904587675.
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