Sampa in Shades of Gray

São Paulo is home to close to 12 million people — 11.45 million in the 2022 census, and the city keeps growing. Most visitors describe it with words like huge, busy, and gray. I decided to lean into that last word. For this post, I converted two of my favorite spots in the city to black and white, because once the color is gone, what is left is what São Paulo (Sampa, as most Brazilians call the city) does best: lines, geometry, and scale.

Avenida Paulista is the commercial heart of São Paulo. It was inaugurated on December 8, 1891, laid out by the Uruguayan-born engineer Joaquim Eugênio de Lima along the top of a ridge, the Espigão da Paulista, that sits roughly 2,600 feet (800 m) above sea level. That ridge is the city’s natural watershed: rain that falls on the north side of the avenue drains to the Tietê River, while the south side drains to the Pinheiros. The avenue runs 1.7 miles (2.8 km) and started life lined with the mansions of coffee barons. In 1909, it became the first street in the city paved with asphalt. Today the mansions are almost all gone, replaced by towers like the one in this photo, a glass building between Rua Augusta and Rua Padre João Manuel that turns its neighbors and the afternoon clouds into a jigsaw puzzle. I photographed it at 53 mm (Sony A7R V with the Tamron 28-300mm), and in monochrome the façade’s grid reads like graph paper.

On any given weekday, an estimated 90,000 vehicles travel this avenue. On Sundays, that number drops to zero. Under the city’s Paulista Aberta (Open Paulista) program, the avenue is closed to cars from Praça do Ciclista to Praça Oswaldo Cruz — essentially its entire length — every Sunday and public holiday, currently from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The first car-free Sunday happened in 2015, after years of pressure from cyclists and pedestrian groups, and the city made it official in 2016 as part of the Ruas Abertas (Open Streets) program. The joy of walking in the middle of that avenue with no cars on a Sunday is priceless. I’ve done that myself and have photos here on my site.

The bridge at the intersection of Marginal Pinheiros and Avenida Jornalista Roberto Marinho is the Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge, widely known locally as the Ponte Estaiada (the cable-stayed bridge). It opened on May 10, 2008, and is named after the longtime publisher of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The X-shaped concrete pylon stands 453 feet (138 m) tall and holds 144 steel cables, and the two roadways that cross the Pinheiros River are curved in opposite directions — it is the only bridge in the world with two curved decks hanging from a single pylon. Counting both roadways, the structure runs about 5,250 feet (1,600 m). In December, the cables are lit up like a Christmas tree, but on this June afternoon the drama came from the clouds instead, and black and white was the only way to do them justice.

The white elevated structure curving along the right side of the frame is the guideway of Line 17-Gold, the city’s newest monorail. It was supposed to be ready for the 2014 World Cup; it finally opened on March 31, 2026, just a few weeks before I stood there with my camera. The stretch now running is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long.

Regardless of where you go in São Paulo, one thing is certain: there will be plenty of buildings around you. Strip away the color, and the city doesn’t get duller—it gets clearer. It is a vibrant city with plenty to satisfy anyone’s desires, and even its gray has many shades.

That is the story behind the shots. For more like this, enjoy these related stories: Avenida Paulista, Brazil, Landscapes, Monochrome, Monochrome Madness, Pinheiros River, Ponte Estaiada, and São Paulo. Until the next shoot, keep chasing the light and the wonders it reveals.

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• Posted for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness #68:

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Sources:

• IBGE — São Paulo (SP) Cidades e Estados — https://www.ibge.gov.br/cidades-e-estados/sp/sao-paulo.html
• Wikipedia — Paulista Avenue — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulista_Avenue
• Wikipédia — Espigão da Paulista — https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espig%C3%A3o_da_Paulista
• ZAP Imóveis — Avenida Paulista: tudo o que você precisa saber — https://www.zapimoveis.com.br/blog/guia-de-cidades/tudo-sobre-avenida-paulista/
• Prefeitura de São Paulo, Subprefeitura Sé — Programa Ruas Abertas — https://prefeitura.sp.gov.br/web/se/w/noticias/134936
• CNN Brasil — Liberdade e Av. Paulista: Prefeitura reduz horário de ruas abertas a pedestres nos domingos — https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/nacional/liberdade-e-av-paulista-prefeitura-reduz-horario-de-ruas-abertas-a-pedestres-nos-domingos/
• ITDP — Four Years of Car Free Sundays on Paulista Avenue — https://itdp.org/2019/12/05/four-years-of-car-free-sundays-on-paulista-avenue/
• Wikipedia — Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oct%C3%A1vio_Frias_de_Oliveira_Bridge
• Structurae — Octávio Frias de Oliveira Bridge — https://structurae.net/en/structures/octavio-frias-de-oliveira-bridge
• Wikipedia — Line 17 (São Paulo Metro) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_17_(S%C3%A3o_Paulo_Metro)