Abstract des Autors

This article proposes geoporn as an analytic lens to examine the ways in which the processes and effects of representing urban landscapes have remained remarkably consistent over several centuries. The analysis begins with the exploration of the differences and similarities between geoporn and ecoporn, suggesting that the latter lens is too narrowly focused on ecology and “nature” to examine the violences, exclusions, and power imbalances embedded in representations of place. By examining the ways in which representations of Rio de Janeiro create cascading power dynamics that range in scale from the landscape to the human body, this article proposes geoporn as an entrenched practice, an analytic frame, and a heuristic. The analysis begins with landscape paintings in Brazil’s colonial period and works through the dynamics of capital accumulation that reshaped Rio de Janeiro during a decade of hosting sports mega-events.