Miguel Rio Branco captures the intensity of life and death through the materiality of his photographs. By taking long exposures he increases the depth of field and saturation of colour. Sometimes this means that the moving figure in the composition is blurred, or even transparent. In the Tate he is exhibiting two bodies of work in juxtaposition. Blue Tango comprises a grid of twenty images, each 50 x 60 cm. This is a series of photos taken of two boys kickboxing, their skinny bodies splayed out in dramatic and angular gestures to create a veritable script of hieroglyphics or a notation for a vivacious dance. Facing these spontaneous images of the street are a group of four large scale photos, 120 x 120 cm each, taken in the gymnasium. In these powerful but unstable images figures sometimes dissolve as a result of the long exposures.