Giovana Schluter is a Brazilian photographer currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work deals with class and whiteness in the context of a hyper-americanized global mainstream culture, studying their implications in Brazil and among Brazilians elsewhere.

In “Paradise Garden”, Schluter documents the residents, workers, and aspirational architecture of a gated community in her hometown of Indaiatuba, Brazil. The secure housing development boasts architecture inspired by that of a Swiss chalet or Italian villa and streets named after Italian cities.

“Being around this every day, it’s easy to take this typology as a given”, Schluter explains. “After a year away, however, I understood that this is the visual manifestation of something I had known about Brazil my entire life—we are confident that anything done in the so-called developed world is inherently better than what’s made in Brazil. Having some money in Brazil almost always means having some kind of aspiration to be a part of the world inhabited by the winners of globalization, which—with all its walls and border security—is its own kind of gated community.”

See more from “Paradise Garden” below!

Giovana Schluter’s Website

Giovana Schluter on Instagram