Claudia Andujar had already been living in Brazil for more than two decades when she decided to seek research funding from FAPESP. It was 1976 and the photographer, who had recently become a naturalized Brazilian, wanted to continue documenting the life of the Yanomami, a project that she had begun with scholarship funding from the Guggenheim Foundation. Her first contact with this people had happened five years earlier, when she was on a Catholic mission in the Catrimani river basin, the then-federal territory of Roraima. Upon submitting her proposal titled \u201cPhotographic documentation and study of the mythology of the Yanomami indians,\u201d she explained: \u201cThe development of indigenous areas is inevitable. For this reason, I am focused on documenting and seeking to understand the indigenous world, respecting their culture and heritage. I believe this is both important and urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the month of May, the request of the then-supervisor of the Department of Photography and Teaching at the S\u00e3o Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) was approved, with an initial grant of Cr$58,600.00 (Cruzeiros, the Brazilian currency at the time) for consumable materials (photographic film, audio tapes, paper, and felt pens), equipment maintenance, and the scientific expedition itself. In June, Andujar headed for Boa Vista in a black VW bug called Watupari (urubu spirit) with her travel companion and lay missionary Carlo Zacquini.<\/p>\n<\/div>