Adonai Rocha (born 1958) is a Brazilian multimedia professional, artist and photographer.
Adonai Rocha was born in 1958 in Poços de Caldas, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Still a child, he moved to Brasilia in 1967 - when the Capital city of Brasilia was still under construction despite its official inauguration in 1960. Adonai grew up in Brasília and began taking pictures in the 70’s as architecture photographer’s assistant. He attended the University of Brasília but dropped the Communication course due the turmoil and repressive apparatus during Brazil’s military dictatorship period. He moved to London, where he studied photography and film at the Polytechnic of Central London and the British Film Institute.
After the opening of the political system and amnesty in the 1980s, Rocha worked as photojournalist for major national magazines and newspapers, and as a freelance advertising and commercial photographer. For many years he has worked in conservation and photographic restoration.
In 1995 he founded the AJA[Note 1] - the Young Apprentice Association - a small but an award-winning, independent, non-religious, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) in Brasília, to teach arts and crafts to special needs youth. AJA uses Information and Communication Technologies - ICTs to foster initiatives on conservation, education, health, human rights, environment protection and social development. In 1998, because of his outstanding work at AJA he was selected nationally to receive the Paulo Freire Award.
In 2002 Rocha moved to Africa to use ICTs on HIV and Aids prevention. He was invited by the United Nations (UNDP) to work in Botswana as educational TV director and producer. From 2005 to 2006 Rocha worked as ICTs director for ACHAP[Note 2]–collaboration between the Government of Botswana, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Merck Foundation. For his ICTs work on TV and web, he has been awarded the Innovative Use of New Media Award,[Note 3] Rhodes University, South Africa.
In 2006 Rocha moved back to Brasília and created different multimedia and web products to promote social and health initiatives such as Dengue and Flu prevention, job bank for disabled persons, global warming and environmentally friendly initiatives, etc.
In 2007 he started using GigaPans[Note 4] photography to promote Brasilia and help to raise awareness about UNESCO World Heritage, the protection and conservation of World Heritage Properties. Brasilia - is the only city in the world built in the 20th century to be awarded (in 1987) the status of Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Rocha's Brasilias Project[Note 5] employs the GigaPan robotic platform for capturing Brasilia's very high-resolution panoramic images. This robotic camera mount was first used by NASA in Mars exploration.
In 2010 had his work Brasilias published on GigaPan Magazine Vol. 2 Issue 2 and exhibited at the Korhausforum in Berne, Switzerland.
Brasilias panoramas were exhibited during Utopia and the Reality of Urbanism in the 20th Century, organisé par le Comité de l’Association Maison blanche et la Section d’histoire de l’art de l’Université de Lausanne, du 29 au 31 octobre 2010, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
The Modern Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro – MAM Rio - exhibited Adonai's photographs about Brasilia architecture in the "Horizonte Construído – Fotografia e Arquitetura nas coleções do MAM" exhibit, from December 2010 to January 2011.
In April 2011 the University of Brasilia - UnB published Adonai's photographic essay "UnB 49 Anos - Imagens de uma universidade resistente" which shows the pro-democracy and pro-amnesty students resistance against the Brazilian military dictatorship, in 1977, when the UnB campus was repeatedly occupied by armed military police and many arbitrary arrests were made.