For years, I avoided Brazil.
Not because I didn’t want to go. Quite the opposite. Brazil fascinated me. The music, the coastline, the history, the architecture, the photography opportunities, the energy of Rio de Janeiro itself. It all pulled at my imagination for a very long time.
But everywhere I traveled throughout South America, other travelers would tell me the same thing.
“Be careful in Rio.”
“You’re going to get robbed.”
“You could get killed there.”
After hearing versions of that story over and over again, fear quietly settled into my thinking. So I stayed away. Year after year, trip after trip, I skipped Brazil entirely.
And then in 2024, I finally went.
What I discovered was not a perfect place. Rio is complex. It is layered. It has beauty and hardship sitting side by side in a way that feels raw and honest. But what I found there was also one of the most visually stunning, culturally rich, emotionally alive places I have ever experienced anywhere in the world.
And now, after visiting Brazil three times in the past couple of years and Rio de Janeiro twice, I can honestly say it has become one of my favorite places I’ve ever photographed.
One of the smartest things I did before this trip was read Laurentino Gomes’ remarkable book 1808: The Flight of the Emperor. The book tells the story of the Portuguese royal family fleeing Napoleon and relocating the court of Portugal to Rio de Janeiro. Suddenly, this distant colonial outpost became the center of the Portuguese Empire.
Reading that history before arriving changed everything for me.
Instead of simply seeing a beautiful city, I felt like I was walking through layers of history. I could stand on a street corner, look toward Guanabara Bay, and imagine Portuguese ships arriving centuries earlier. I could look at the old architecture, the churches, the neighborhoods, and understand that Rio wasn’t simply built for tourism or postcards. It was shaped by empire, trade, slavery, immigration, music, religion, and survival.
That history gave the city weight.
One of the moments I’ll never forget was standing on top of Sugarloaf Mountain after riding the cable car up above the harbor. The view almost doesn’t seem real at first. The beaches curve endlessly around the city. Mountains rise directly out of the ocean. Clouds roll over the peaks. The scale of Rio de Janeiro is difficult to process until you see it from above.
I had lunch up there just staring at the city.
Not rushing.
Not checking my phone.
Just taking it in.
The same thing happened visiting Christ the Redeemer. It is one of those landmarks so photographed that you almost worry reality won’t live up to the image in your mind. But standing there in person, looking out over Rio with the clouds moving through the mountains and the city stretching endlessly below, it absolutely does.
The Botanical Garden may have surprised me most of all. Quiet trails. Giant palms. Tropical flowers. Water features. Birds everywhere. It felt like a peaceful sanctuary hidden inside one of the world’s busiest and most visually overwhelming cities. I spent hours there with my camera just slowing down and observing details.
Some of my favorite moments in Rio were not famous landmarks at all.
They were the smaller human moments.
Listening to samba late at night in a neighborhood gathering.
Walking unfamiliar streets before sunrise.
Watching waves crash onto Copacabana.
Talking with locals.
Hearing music drift through open windows.
Photographing fishermen, street life, clouds over Sugarloaf, and neighborhoods climbing the hillsides.
And yes, even touring through a favela.
That experience stayed with me deeply. From a distance, outsiders often reduce these communities to headlines and stereotypes. But standing there in person, you see families, businesses, children playing, people working, neighbors talking, music playing. You see life. Complicated life, certainly, but life filled with humanity and resilience.
Travel has taught me repeatedly that fear and reality are often very different things.
Had I listened forever to the warnings of others, I would have missed one of the most meaningful countries I have ever visited.
Brazil challenged me.
Inspired me.
Moved me.
And like all the places I love most, it reminded me that the world becomes infinitely more interesting the moment we stop experiencing it through someone else’s fears and finally choose to see it for ourselves.
There are still places in Rio I haven’t explored. More streets to walk. More music to hear. More stories to photograph. And honestly, I cannot wait to return.
