Vavá Ribeiro (b. 1969, Brazilian) photographed Encantado over the course of four years in the Brazilian Amazon, working with the riverside community of Tumbira. The book is rooted in the legend of the Boto, the pink river dolphin believed to transform into a handsome, seductive man who appears at local festivities and seduces women. Traditionally, unexpected pregnancies are attributed to him.
Ribeiro’s rare underwater photographs of the boto are set alongside images of the river, its flooded forest, and the people who live there. Together, they show both the enduring mythology of the Amazon and the reality of a region undergoing profound environmental and social change.
Encantado explores the close relationship between people, animals, and the river. It is a story of transformation, set in a place where myth and everyday life exist side by side, and where the line between what is seen and what is believed is never quite clear.
