São Paulo: Three Visual Essays redeems key characters of the city, with photographs taken in 1862, such as the ones by Militão Augusto de Azevedo, then onwards through the 20th century, with shots by Alice Brill, and finally through the 21st century, with pictures by Mauro Restiffe, among others. The visual communication of the city is presented since the painted walls of the 19th century to its neon lights and billboards by the 20th and 21st centuries. It also accompanies the grand transformations the city has gone through. Within the course of a hundred years, São Paulo, which started out as a village, transformed into one of the world's greatest metropolis.