Fotografia

The song *Fotografia* has that quality of evoking a suspended moment, an instant that lingers. It is described as a piece that conveys "a tone of memory and nostalgia", and it is not hard to feel that when listening to it. It has been said that the lyrics, written in English by Ray Gilbert in 1965, and the melody, both composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim, come together to create an atmosphere of "seductive romance" and something "hypnotic". The story it seems to tell is that of a fleeting love, an afternoon encounter that ends at dusk, with that farewell kiss that marks the end of a shared moment, often in the context of clandestine relationships or "late-afternoon love affairs", as described by Flora Purim.

This piece, born in 1959, emerged at a particular moment for Jobim. His usual collaborator, Vinicius de Moraes, was in Montevideo, which gave Jobim the opportunity to explore writing his own lyrics, also working with other lyricists such as Newton Mendonça, Dolores Duran, and Aloísio de Oliveira. The first time we heard *Fotografia* was in the voice of Sylvia Telles in 1959, within her album *Amor De Gente Moça*. Later, Jobim would record it in English for his 1967 album, *A Certain Mr. Jobim*. The version many know and which became a milestone is the one recorded by Elis Regina alongside Antonio Carlos Jobim on the album *Elis & Tom*, recorded in Los Angeles between February and March 1974. This album, which arose as a gift for Elis for her ten years under contract with Philips, was a collaboration between two leading figures of Brazilian popular music, with innovative arrangements by César Camargo Mariano that incorporated electric instruments into bossa nova.