“I REMEMBER the sun, the dazzling light over the sea. And the people, gentle figures moving slowly across the sand. It was so far away from what I had become used to in England. And yet I was born here, in Rio de Janeiro and Rio was my city.”

Rio-born photographer Sandra Cattaneo Adorno was taken to her first photography class as a present for her 60th birthday. Within a few years she had been commended for the Sony Awards and been exhibited in Somerset House in London.

In 2018 she returned to the city of her birth and the result is her new book Aguas de Ouro (Portuguese for Waters of Gold), a shimmering vision of the beaches of Rio, full of images that shift between hazy and pin-sharp, but all of them glowing with life and joy.

As we head into autumn here’s a blast of Brazilian sun to lift the spirits.

Taken from Aguas de Ouro by Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, published by Radius Books (radiusbooks.org). © Sandra Cattaneo Adorno