Publication of the book “Altinha” by Loco Publishing, 2026.
Text by Marly Porto, historian and specialist in Brazilian photography.

Limited edition: The first 10 numbered copies and an accompanying print titled “Menino Anja”

Available for purchase at the gallery.

Altinha is a popular game played on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro: Ipanema, Leblon, Copacabana, Leme, etc. The game involves keeping the ball in the air without using your hands. This quintessential Rio sport emerged in the 1960s and is best played near the water, where players’ feet won’t get burned by the hot sand. Tanara Stuermer continues: “I’ve always loved watching this sport. From the very beginning, I found the spirit of solidarity that binds the players to be wonderful. They aren’t competing against each other. There’s no rivalry. They all share the same playful goal: to keep the ball from touching the ground.” Tanara Stuermer sees these sporting scenes—punctuated by the movements of bodies and balls—as true choreographies that she strives to capture in her images. She experiments by layering tracing paper, creating a diffraction and decomposition of movement in the style of Edweard Muybridge or Étienne-Jules Marey. *Altinha* is a true “book-object” that plays on the transparency of fine paper to convey the artist’s formal explorations.