Photo of Rio de Janeiro slum finds a home in Laguna Beach collection

If you lift your eyes above Ipanema Beach at a particular moment, you might see what Baldemar Fierro saw.

The photographer from Laguna Beach captured the twinkling lights and colorful buildings in one of Rio de Janeiro‘s favelas, or slums, overlooking the city’s tourist beaches.

The photo, titled “Favela Morro do Cantagalo,” was featured at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach this summer. Now it has been added to the festival’s permanent collection of 1,150 paintings, ceramics, photographs and other artworks that date to the 1900s.

It measures 48 by 78 inches and was shot with a large-format camera. Board member Tom Lamb explains in a statement issued Monday why the Festival of Arts bought the image: “Baldemar exemplifies a new breed of photographers, whose documentary work in Third World countries often create underlying stories such as the tension between the desperate conditions of the slums often adjacent to neighborhoods of the rich and famous with incongruous lifestyles.”

Favelas have become popular tourist draws in Brazil, particularly this one between Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

A study released in 2013 says 58% of Brazilian tourists and 51% of foreign tourists said they wanted to visit the slums while touring Rio, according to a story in the Rio Times.

The festival’s artworks have no permanent home but are put on display locally from time to time, a spokeswoman says.

To see more photos by this artist, visit Baldemar Fierro Photography.