"I learned that fear doesn't mean lack of courage."
By Guilherme Lima
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT - IN THE HEART OF THE TAPAJÓS RIVER
The inspiration for photographic project "In the Heart of the Tapajós River" was born during research for my pre-master's project that suggests a virtual ethnographic analysis of a webdocumentary called "Who Killed the Tapajós?". In this immersion came the desire to know the region, a natural necessity to go to the countryside and to see closely everything that involves the struggle of people seeking, even under threats, to keep alive their culture, their land, their memory.
The idea of the project "In the Heart of the Tapajós River" is to portray the natural beauty of the landscapes, the everyday life of people, the bucolic simplicity and tranquility of everyday life. The intention is that this visual poetic can serve as a backdrop to attract eye to the impacts of biodiversity and society, capable of destroying an ecosystem and an entire millennial culture of the Mundurukus Indians and the more than 200 years of stories of the riverside population living in region. A subtle warning about violence in the implementation of large projects such as hydroelectric dams in the Amazon and especially in the region of the Tapajós - Middle Tapajós.
The middle Tapajós region, in southwestn Para, suffers significant changes with the promises of the capital of "development" and "progress" due to the construction of dams for generating electrical energy in the region, no matter that it is necessary to evade the population with a guarantee of better living conditions. However, the dams of Tucuruí and beautiful Monte do Xingu serve as a mirror to highlight the compensation offerings do not work. Just like thousands of families lost their lands in Tucuruí and Belo Monte, the people of the Tapajós may have even greater loss because the low remuneration for the lands in reality are not made in promises, a minority receives a value far below what deserves and the vast majority receives no remuneration.
The ambition of capital to exploit and make a profit puts the people of Tapajós in a physical and psychological struggle that involves coercion, threats, criminalization of leadership and assassinations. It is known that the energy produced in Tucuruí, Belo Monte and the Tapajós hydroelectric complex will not reach our homes, and we pay around 500% more than the miners. They are with 80% of energy, while we common consumers are forced to enjoy energy with oscillations and without quality that still brings us losses and high rates in the account of light.
In addition to the dams, there are still the demands of the construction of ports and the old coexistence with the Trans-Amazon Highway and the consequences of drug trafficking, prostitution, and especially harassment and violence against women, children and adolescents.
To reach the Middle Tapajós I contacted a lot of people generating a reliable relationship, very important in a scenario like this, until I was received in Itaituba by militants of the MAB - Movement of the Affected by Dams, in which I highlight the person of Frede Vieira who reported these facts from the observation of all these movements and gave me minimal conditions so I could photograph this beauty of enchanting our eyes
The project "In the Heart of the Tapajós" extends in several series in the social networks and here, the more than 500 photos, are divided in four parts:
Itaituba - The heart of the Tapajós River
Pimental - The Tapajós River Resists
Lives in Black and White
Black and White Landscapes.
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Itaituba - The heart of the Tapajós River
I tried to show in this album the quiet daily life of the city of Itaituba, the neighborhood of São José where the stilts are located Vila Nova and Vila Caçula, a village Munduruku - Praia do Índio, part of the part of the Trans-Amazon highway that cuts The municipality, a family that insists on maintaining self-sustaining planting amid the threats of timber and agribusiness, and the natural landscape around the Tapajós river.
Itaituba is a small town in the interior of Pará, 1214km away from Belém, located on the banks of the Tapajós River. Formerly known as the "nugget town", it is now the center of the struggle against the construction of a dam complex on the Tapajós River and its tributaries. In the heart of this resistance is the Movement of the Affected by Dams, the MAB, a national movement that organizes the attained, workers in 19 states of Brazil, fighting and denouncing the local and global impact that these dams can cause. The stilt neighborhood with about 110,000 residents in the city center. Then I visited one of the villages Mundurukus, the closest to the urban perimeter and the Nova Mirititutba settlement in Miritituba District.
The Trans-Amazon Highway was inaugurated in 1972 during the military regime to bind the north and northeast regions of Brazil with Peru and Ecuador. Since its inauguration, 44 years ago, it was never completed. By crossing the city of Itaituba it is cut by the Tapajós River and the crossing of people, animals, vehicles and loads is made by the ferry of Rodonave Navigations, the only one that holds the right to make path. The pictures depict the landscape around the highway, part of it asphalted and part not and one of the many nearby resorts in which people go with their families and friends for leisure moments. Already at the height of km 30, in Campo Verde, the photos reveal the flow of truckers and portrait the contact I had with some teenagers who in testimony spoke, among other things, about education, violence, and how it is to be young In the region of the Transamazon.
In the company of German and Brazilian priests I crossed in the middle of the trip I visited a sworn death family by agribusiness and loggers. The threat occurs because they insist on maintaining a self sustaining culture within 100 hectares of land, without using pesticides and without the overthrow of the forest, using only the resources the earth offers and reutilizing dead wood. The photos were made with some apprehension because henchmen hired by the agribusiness in the region could perceive the presence of the camera in the place and this would surely cost my own life.
Pimental - The Tapajós River Resists
Pimental is a fisherman's village the banks of the Tapajós River in t he heart of Pará 65 km straight from Itaituba, were 3 hours in the Bolle of the Micro-truck until reaching the place. Pimental is a very peaceful community and natural beauty is amazing. This is where the Federal Government intends to build the São Luis do Tapajós plant that will flood the entire community if the dam is built, part of the Amazon National Park, indigenous villages which will damage the area of fishing and hunting that is part of the culture of the people. That is why I sought to reveal the everyday life of the local population and their relationship with the river, especially the fun of children and household chores like washing clothes and dishes and showing how the Tapajós river is the lives of these people and so many other lives around it.
Leaving Pimental about 30 km upstream and another 2 hours by boat I visited another Munduruku village to Sawré Muybu, symbol of resistance against the construction of the dams. On the occasion the Chief was traveling and without his authorization I was uncomfortable to photograph. But I could hear the reports of threats that leave unrest until the most valiant, of the struggle for the survival of a millennial culture Mundurku to the shores of the Tapajós that can be flooded and the struggle for the survival of the Tapajós river itself that already Suffers the consequences of these works.
The Tapajós River in Black and White
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"The Tapajós River in Black and White" comes from my passion for black and white photography, from the desire to portray people and places in this format. This comes from when I worked as a photo lab assistant in college and fell in love with the magic of black and white. The series is divided into two albums: "Lives in Black and White" and "Black and White Landscapes". I used these photos to more greenish tone, seeking a denser and less pale sensation of BnW.
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After Itaituba, in the Middle Tapajós, I followed a boat trip along most of the Amazon River to Iquitos in the Peruvian jungle. Returning to Manaus by acre through the Madeira River. In the whole were more than 7,000 km river up and down and 25 days of travel sleeping on a network like any other passenger, along with all sorts of cargo household appliances, food and even animals. And another documentary record of shining Eyes.
Special acknowledgments
Elitiel Guedes - Who put me in contact with key people who have welcomed me and made possible part of the project.
Jean Brito - Great photographer from Pará who received me at his home in Bethlehem and showed me the city. With him I met Rogério of MAB.
Rogério Paulo Hohn - MAB Coordinator in the region of Pará who put me in contact with Frede in Itaituba.
Frede Vieira - Has become a friend in Itaituba that I take for my whole life. He welcomed me into the headquarters of MAB and walked with me throughout the region facilitating the production of photos and contact with interesting characters. With him I learned a lot about politics, about the real struggle of the people and how to take a macro look at things, the departure from full experience and knowledge of their microcosmic space.
Rejania Macêdo, Lucielle Souza Viana e Heidy Luvia Lima - Great women of the region, MAB militants who accompanied me in Pimental. With them I could know and photograph one of the most beautiful places in Brazil.
Acknowledgments
Ada Tifany, Alessandro Almeida, Lorena Medrado, Jaqueline Damasceno, Debora Azevedo, Seu Luis LIma, Dona Chica, Dona Josefa, CAK, Telva, Joilma, João Ferreira, Oziléia, Raian, Robert, Orlando, Gizely Sousa Moura, Junior Alves, Milene Sindor, Milene Sindor, Raione Lima, Filho e Neuza Brasil, Everaldo Manhuari Munduruku. Lane Lima, Juliana Bacci
Residents of Pimental Fisherman's Village
Indigenous of the Mundurukus Villages
MAB - Movement of the Affected by Dams
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Social networks - Guigalimas - Guilherme Lima
www.glphotobr.wixsite.com/glphotobr
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Equipments:
Canon T3i
Lenses Canon 18-55mm, 50mm, 75-300mm
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GoPro Hero 4