Edgar Kanaykõ

Edgar Corrêa Kanaykõ belongs to the Xakriabá indigenous people of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He holds a master’s degree in Anthropology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and a degree in Intercultural Training for Indigenous Educators from the same institution. He works in the field of Ethno-photography, which is, in his words, “a means of recording aspects of a culture — the life of a people”.

Edgar is one of contemporary Brazilian photography’s leading voices, looking at the resistance and struggle for territory and culture from the point of view of indigenous peoples. Recently he has participated in exhibitions such as Véxoa: We Know (Pinacoteca de São Paulo, 2020, curated by Naine Terena); Manjar: Re-conhecimento (Solar dos Abacaxis, Rio de Janeiro, 2019, curated by Denilson Baniwa and Maria Catarina Duncan); and Urgence et résistance (Espace Shakirail, Paris, 2019, curated by Cristianne Rodrigues). In 2020, he won the CNPq Photography, Science & Art Award, for his work “Iny: O Brilho dos Espíritos”, captured during the Kuarup ritual, performed by the Kuikuro people in the Upper Xingu.