FROM FREIRE TO RIPPER: dialogues on one humanist education and popular photography

This article presents the similarities found in central points in the thought and educational practices between the educator Paulo Freire and the photodocumentaryman Joao Roberto Ripper, based on the experience of the Popular Photographers School (EFP), which had classes from 2004 to 2014 and an agency of photographers linked to the school and still in operation, located in the Mare favela's complex in Rio de Janeiro. EFP was an initiative of the Favela Observatory ONG and was intended for vocational training in humanist photography to young people from the peripheries. The fundamental premise was to form popular photographers in order to combat the hegemonic discourse of the mainstream media in portraying the favela as a territory devoid of values and, thus, EFP sought to promote individual and collective resignification. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with some graduates and professionals who were important in the idealization and progress of EFP activities, it was found that the legacy left by EFP in its graduates crossed the frontier of technical excellence and promoted profound and lasting personal transformations in students and, by extension, in the communities where they are inserted. Although not mentioned directly, it was found that educational practices in EFP were essentially Freire's pedagogy.