BRAZIL | SOCIAL | PHOTOGRAPHY: 2008

2008/12/19

the cycle

Many mothers and grandparents of young people who were sexually exploited share a history in common: rear children and grandchildren who never knew their own father.
At BR-163, several cities were born of goldmines and activities that attracted outsiders, temporary workers with no local ties. It is a cycle that repeats itself.

Young girls become pregnant from men that never return. The children are reared without a family structure, and are often abandoned with grandparents or sold to networks operating in other states or countries.

Many of the children sexually exploited in the region are sons and daughters of this vicious cycle.

Check out my website, the BR-163 Highway's gallerie, for more images and information.

2008/12/18

young victim

At BR-163, the young girl was hesitant to report how, as to the age of 15, after being sexually exploited by a year, she managed to escape by the back window from a brothel, with 8 months pregnant, rescued by her own mother.

Gender and race are themselves aspects structuring the logic of the market for sex.
Projects already implemented show that the vast majority of victims of sexual exploitation, tourism and trafficking are the female, black, mulatto and mestizo.

A former authoritarian and sexist culture still existing in the Brazilian society creates inequality in the relationship between gender and promotes an image of women as mere sexual object, subject to be purchased or used. The crystallization of this strengthen the concept of a female body offered as a supply, something natural - for both adults as for children and adolescents.

2008/11/18

consuME

Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.
Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.

During a research about the sexual commercial exploitation of children and adolescents on Brazilian roadways , this set of images was born as a perpendicular set from my documentation of the issue.
Those images, old billboards around the BR-163 Highway, were always calling me, sending me subtle messages, like whispers that I couldn't silence.

According the Brazilian ANDI's documents (Childhood and Adolescence Rights News Agency Network), the consumerist pressure exerted by the media, mainly by the advertising industry, impose patterns of consumer behavior often inaccessible to a large population, and especially the children and youth. The search for such patterns represent in many cases one of the factors for approval among children and adolescents and networks of sexual exploitation.

2008/11/07

voiceless

Many rural households are affected by the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents on the Brazilian roads. Most times, they are sons and daughters of peasants who migrate from rural areas, and end up being exploited on the highways.

It is a portion of the population socially vulnerable, voiceless and without access to basic rights of citizenship. At the root of the problem are poverty and social exclusion: unemployment, malnutrition and hunger, the destruction of the family, the poorly educated family, and children and teenagers out of school.

The networks that take advantage of activity, linked to pornography, sex tourism and child sexual exploitation, is usually organized within the country, in cities with 5 thousand and 100 thousand inhabitants.

2008/11/03

vulnerability

The service stations are the most vulnerable sites to sexual exploitation of children and adolescents on Brazilian roadways.

The conditions of the offered services at these places reflect the very bad situation of the drive truckers, and also a silent complicity in relation to sexual exploitation.

Indirectly, the owners of service stations benefit it as a source of income for their business.

2008/10/28

clients

Drive truckers are the most frequently clients of the children and teenagers living
in sexual commercial exploitation situation at the Brazilian roads.
Responsible for transporting more than 60% of all freight moved in the country, these professionals spend most of their life in the driver's seat of the truck.

According a large national research developed by Childhood - Brasil with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, drive-truckers consider themselves marginalized, eat and sleep poorly and stop at places with lack of infrastructure.
More than a third of them admitted having participated directly in a situation of sexual exploitation of child or adolescent, often with no clear idea of what this means.

Check out my website, the BR-163 Highway's gallerie, for more images and information.

2008/10/20

rainbows and shadows

BR-163 Highway is one of the main roads cutting the heart of the Amazon.

BR-163, which is slated to be paved as an export corridor for soybeans via the Amazon River, traverses an area that is largely outside of Brazilian government control.
A climate of generalized lawlessness and impunity prevails, and matters related to environment and to land tenure are especially unregulated.

Rainbows and shadows were guiding my way during the travel on this emblematic highway.

Check out my website, the BR-163 Highway's gallerie, for more images and information.

2008/10/05

Spreading the history

James Nachtwey reveals his TED Prize wish.
The issue is Tuberculosis, which has been mutating because of inadequate treatment in a new form: Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis.
James worked the past 18 months to document its impact, and now it's making a call.

Visit xdrtb.org for more details and to take action.

2008/07/22

Prestes Maia | Opening in Los Angeles August 9th

Solo Exhibition
Prestes Maia:
Opening August 9 6pm to 8pm

August 9 to October 3 2008

Alegria Gallery
2737 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323.454.4200
9to5 MF

A Diary of Exclusion

The Alegria Gallery, from Art and Shelter, will be exhibiting a group of photographs from the Prestes Maia essay. These images are fragments of a visual diary that I have been keeping at the Prestes Maia occupation at the heart of the city of Sao Paulo, during almost three years (2005 to 2007).
The site was considered the largest vertical occupation in Latin America. The building was an old textile factory abandoned more than 20 years ago, and the owners owe millions in taxes to the municipal government. Some 2.000 people were living there, members of the Downtown Homeless Movement, which is led by 10 women from various occupied sites in the city. The groups, well organized and articulated are formed by thousands of people who formerly lived on the street, in squares or under bridges and overpasses. Like an army without shelter, they founded the Homeless Movement not only as a way to struggle for the right to housing, but to restore their own dignity, unraveled by lack of care and social segregation.

There is tremendous prejudice in Brazil against the homeless, who are often accused of being "rabble rousers" and "invaders" of empty and abandoned buildings.There are more than 400 sealed or under utilized buildings in downtown Sao Paulo. It is in these locations that the homeless want to live. Nevertheless, in recent years, "urban revitalization" projects have given emphasis to raising real estate values, and there is no room for the homeless. They are evicted towards the periphery or sub-human life in cortiços – precarious urban dwellings with many residents in tiny spaces. These revitalization projects sponsored by the city government and private companies (pressure of property speculation) do not give priority to reducing inequalities, but to exclusion, a social apartheid, which often includes violent actions from shock troops, security forces and private security.
These images seek to show that the homeless are honorable people seeking the inalienable right to a dignified life.

Prestes Maia Occupation now
After almost 5 years of occupation, constants suspensions of evictions, national and international mobilizations, in May 2007, a meeting joined leaders from federal, state and municipal sphere, giving a new direction for the Prestes Maia families. After negotiations, a progressive and pacific withdrawal happened and the occupation was closed.
Many had moved to other buildings, small apartments at city's downtown with a provisory support of the federal government, and are still waiting the promise of the negotiation: reform and rent for fair values social habitations for them . Other group of families accepted the offer to move out of downtown, to live in the periphery of the city. Some other families just moved to other occupations from the Homeless Movement in the city, and continue fighting.
Since July, 2007, the Prestes Maia building is still closed, sealed with concrete blocks.

These photos are fragments of this history of S o Paulo society, where I was born. They are not only testimonies, but also elements of communication that I hope can raise awareness and promote the approximation of social classes. They strive to contribute to the transformation of urban space into a location that does not segregate, but to the contrary, unites people around a common good.

2008/06/27

do not play

Pollution Foundation

"The pygmies, who have small bodies and large memory,
recall the days before the time, when the land was above the sky.

From the earth was felling on the sky an incessant rain of dust and garbage,
soiling the home of the gods and poisoning their food.

The gods were, there was an eternity, supporting such a tallowy discharge,
when their patience were over.

They sent a lightning, which left the land divided in two. Across the opened earth they threw high the sun, the moon and the stars, and through this way they also rose. And then on top, distant from us, safe from us, the gods founded their new kingdom.

Since then, we are below."

By Eduardo Galeano,
a piece of his brand new book*
"Espejos. Una historia casi universal"
("Mirrors. A history almost universal")

* Apologies by my translation, originally published at "Le Monde Diplomatique".
> Image of a Bororo man scaring me with his flute,
during the Indigenous National Festival.

2008/06/15

steps

"What is an adult?
A child blown up by age."
Simone de Beauvoir

Boys and men,
future and warriors,
from Xingu, the beating Amazonia's heart,
during the Indigenous National Festival.

2008/06/04

exploring

New angles for a visual language, as an offer,
to communicate how we see and feel the world to others

A young Yanomami photographing the cerimonial dance of the Xingu Nations, at the VIII Indigenous Festival.

2008/05/26

the river flow

A man from Xingu dances
flowing with other groups,
during the Indigenous National Festival.
.
.
.

"What will be left of the Xingu river for the people of Xingu?
from Amazon Watch

Brazil's state dam company, Electronorte, is moving ahead with plans to build one of the Amazon's most controversial development projects - the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River in the state of Pará. The Belo Monte dam replaces an old proposal for hydroelectric construction on the Xingu, abandoned over a decade ago in the face of massive international and national protest."

2008/05/20

100 eyes and "The Human Condition" projection

100eyes website is showing The Human Condition slideshow, that was originally showed during the LOOK3 - Charlottesville Festival of Photography , 2007 - US.
Some of my pictures (these) were included by Andy Levin and joined the original exhibition that is now available to watch at the link. I really enjoyed the project and hope you like too.

© Ami Vitale

"100eyes bringing photographers together to work on projects of cultural and social significance. "

2008/05/19

forever

Girls Gavião Kyikatêjê.
They are Hãwykyderi and Purukwyi.

I saw them enjoying their own picture in a small digital camera,
I instantly aimed my camera,
they instantly aimed their eyes for me
.
.

a picture forever
in my soul

2008/05/18

the development

and social changes...
cameras and arrows.

About some things, I feel so lucky to be a testimony.
.
.

Finally, many Brazilian Indigenous People from different groups
are discovering the photography and having access.
Finally they will be able to be the
protagonists of their own history.

Here a Wapishana men shows their own picture to a Kuikuru man.
It's so clear why we all love development...

2008/05/16

in the dark

I was inside the cabin when I saw this Pareci (Haliti) woman
during the Indigenous National Festival, 2008.
.
.

Marina Silva, the last environmental voice of resistance in Lula's government resigned this week as Brazil's environment minister. She says she lacked the necessary political support to protect the Amazon.
She was the only voice defending that the Brazilian economic development can't be obtained at any price, specially the fragile Amazon area, while the social politics of the government are pressuring all to create a big show using the "PAC" (Programme for Accelerated Growth), to produce the illusion of a developed and emergent country.

"Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment," said Sergio Leitao, director of public policy for Greenpeace in Brazil. "The minister is leaving because the pressure on her for taking the measures she took against deforestation has become unbearable."

National and international agribusiness men, woodcutters, transgenics producers, miners owners, large constructor companies and the rural bench are all celebrating.

I'm feeling as an orphan.

night sun future

Bororo people cannot live in homologated land. Although to have its demarcated territory, the Bororo of the land Jarudori (Mato Grosso state) is obliged to live spread in other lands of its people, because its traditional area is invaded by squatters. Invasions, violence and epidemics - of tuberculosis and measles - had contributed for exit of many of the Bororo families who lived there.

> Indigenous National Festival at Bertioga city, 2008.

2008/03/25

Native Medias / Mídias Nativas

Here are some images of the II Native Medias Seminar, São Paulo.
Sadly I couldn't follow all the activities and all the meetings, but here are some pictures of participants at the first two days, and links to blogs and websites with information about what were showed at the Seminar:

Massimo Di Felici - Cepop/atopos

Gaspar - Z'Africa Brasil

Atiã Pankararu - Rede Índios Online

Eliezer Santos e Ronaldo Costa - Canal Motoboy

Marcos Terena - Memorial dos Povos Indígenas

Olívio Jekupé - Literatura Indígena

Sérgio Vaz - Colecionador de Pedras

Tio Pac - Filmagens Periféricas

Alessandro Buzo - Suburbano Convicto

Tião Nicomendes - Diário - A realidade das ruas de São Paulo

Yakuy Tupinambá - Índios Online

2008/03/24

protagonists of their own history

Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.
Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.

I took this portrait at the VII Indigenous Festival, 2007, where for the first time I was working beside a Kuikuro and a Xavante videomaker, a Karaja photographer and a Yudja sound recorder. Documenting the Festival since 2005, this was the first time that I've worked with a group of Indigenous People documenting their own Festival, and this certainly means a strong cultural change.
I usually show links (at the right column of this Blog) for other Natives Blogs and websites, and they have been increasing fast.

Soon, I hope they will be able to show to the world their own productions and finally their own vision of history, something that is really missed in Brazil. They will also be able to develop more structures to defend themselves and their autonomy.

Here goes some interesting information (sorry, it's my translation) from the USP website (University of Sao Paulo), wrote originally by Francisco Angelo, about the seminar that is starting tomorrow, the II Mídias Nativas (II Native Media), that will join Indigenous cultural producers, professors and media cultural producers from communities, living at the periphery and inequality of Sao Paulo:

"To create a site or blog showing his life or produce a short video and placed it on the web are now more than common practice for most young people of large Brazilian cities. But what we would say if it was done by bloggers and videomakers from indigenous communities of the Amazon or Canada? There are these processing experiments possible by new communication technologies that will be presented at the second edition of the Native Media, seminar which will be held in Sao Paulo between days 25 and March 27.

In the event, designed by the Research Center of Public Opinion in Contexts Digital (Cepop / Atopos) of the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) of USP, members of ethnic groups such as Guarani, Terena and Xavante will share their experiences media, which are the publication of books, production of radio programs within the villages and reach the digital production more explicit, such as CDs, Websites, Nets and blogs. Also will be present representatives of natives from Canada, where similar projects have been developed by the people Algonquines and Atikamekw.

"What is happening today is a revolution. It is the power of the press ", defines Massimo di Felice, a professor of ACE and one of the organizers of the meeting. For him, the new digital communication technologies represent an unprecedented experience for people before "invisible" as the locals: to be the protagonists of their own history. "For 500 in many years, the Indians in Brazil were the object of policies on the part of governments, FUNAI, NGOs. Today, with the help of the Internet, they have the opportunity to make direct diplomacy, without the intermediation of the organs and entities that tutelage. They even disclose their texts, their culture, and come in contact with international organizations, for example. "

Indigenous People and young population from the periphery
At the first Native Media, which occurred in 2006, several texts of indigenous authors then presented were gathered and published in Italy, in the form of the book Indiografia. This second edition of the event has broadened the issue of indigenous peoples also for the young people of the suburbs of large Brazilian cities, as Ronaldo Costa and Elieser Santos. They created the Canal do Motoboy, a virtual daily journal where motorcyclists write and publish photos generated by mobile phones on their day-to-day in the middle of the chaotic transit of Sao Paulo city.

For Di Felice, this is a clear signal that the role electronics that are changing indigenous people is a fact worldwide. "Today, any individual can produce their own content and make it available online for the whole world. This reverses the various models of communication classic which separated clearly an emitter, the 'owner' of the information, the receivers, "says Massimo.

Apart from the changes in culture communicative, Massimo also points to a qualitative change of citizenship. The web, he said, allows people who live in the same locality is aware, to organize themselves and, above all, create ways to act on the environment in which they live. "The digital culture is promoting an activism, with implications, I would say, for the explosive politics. People are going to have a relationship of direct action on its territory, without going through the traditional forms of authority. It is a production of a new form of citizenship, more collaborative and participatory, ".

2008/03/15

future

A Yawalapiti baby was dreaming during the ceremony...
I was dreaming with her future.

Pontos.de.Vista (Points.of.View) is a Portuguese website about photography showing collective exhibitions, individual portfolios and invited photographers, where I spend a lot of time looking through really nice photographers body work.
I was honored by their invite, as a guest author, to show some of my work there.
You can see it at this link: "Incendiary of Souls ".

Many thanks to Sofia Quintas and Paulo Rodrigues (photographers and leaders of Ponto.de.Vista) for this opportunity, and specially to contribute with the memory of the Indigenous Peoples culture, that are constant living such a strong transformation in Brazil.

2008/01/28

Another Periphery is possible, necessary and urgent

These are some portraits of the youth in places that I've been working at the urban periphery of the mega city Sao Paulo, where art have been a strong tool to improve social development and fight against the effects of inequality. Some images were made during the Sul Social Forum, at Jardim Angela, and others, at Espaço Cultural Beija-Flor, Diadema. I wonder how would be this city, if we were able to have a garden of cultural centers in all the periphery, encouraging and giving access to so many talented artists we have.