Fantástico by Boris Kossoy

Brazilian born Boris Kossoy made his first brief professional visit to the United States only last October. Strongly influenced by the work of Antonioni, Bergman and Fellini among others, he arrived from São Paulo with a portfolio of his work from a book recently published in his native land titled “Viagem pelo Fantástico” (Journey into the Fantastic). Some of these are shown here.

The Brazilian photo-surrealist thrusts a powerful juxtaposition of images at the viewer’s eye and imagination. In heightened dramatic, starkly lit settings, using friends as models, he poses visions that startle and tease. Kossoy pursues his concern with mask and reality using incongruous pictorial elements to entice the viewer to enter his bizarre, super real world. Thirty year old Kossoy was headed for a career in architecture, but in 1968 he decided to try his hand at photography full time. Now free lancing for ad agencies and magazines in Brazil, ge also produces photographic scenarios for TV. 

His photographs are included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Art, São Paulo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo.

FATÁSTICO by Boris Kossoy. Infinity, Nova Iorque, vol. 20, n. 12, p. 18, dez. de 1971.