1990, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Lives and works in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Zumvi Arquivo Afro Fotográfico was created in 1990 by Lázaro Roberto, Ademar Marques, and Raimundo Monteiro, three young Black men from the periphery of Salvador, who lived in an adverse historical context during the military dictatorship, facing the hardships of being Black in the Blackest city outside of the African continent. They are Afro-Brazilian photographers who are committed to recording cultural and political activities and the production of images of Afro- Brazilian culture. The goal was to do documentary photography or photojournalism.

A photographer and art educator known as “Lente Negra” (Black Lens), Lázaro Roberto was first introduced to the universe of photography in the mid-1970s. In 1990, he co-founded Zumvi Arquivo
Afro Fotográfico, an association of Black photographers that remains active to this day. In 1992, he produced the exhibition O Negro e o Seu Trabalho at Feira de Água de Meninos de São Joaquim, which, in 1995, toured around Recife. In 2018, he produced the exhibition Memórias de Resistências Negras at Museu Afro-Brasileiro da Universidade Federal da Bahia (MAFRO), Bahia. He participated in Valongo Festival Internacional da Imagem, São Paulo, 2018; Festival Internacional de Fotografia de Porto Alegre, 2019; and Festival Transatlântico de Fotografia, Salvador, 2019. Finally, he has published pieces in the international magazines Foam, 2020, and Blind, 2020.