“Look, the Movement, in my view, is something very important for Brazil.
I see no government policy that moves in any way seriously in the direction
of rehabilitating the citizens, the struggle for citizenship. For, in reality,
it is a Movement that has led its participants to take up such a responsibility”.
Biodata
Internationally renowned photographer. The dramatic black and white 109 photos
in his book Terra (Phaidon), taken in Brazil between 1980 and 1996,
capture unvanishing memories of the nightmarish daily existence of the Landless
in their encampments, built at the side of the road as a strategy of political
pressure. Religious motifs abound in his photographs depicting the quest of
the landless migrants for a Promised Land. A best-seller in Brazil for months,
the book was also published in several other countries; it is prefaced by the
Nobel Prize winner Portuguese writer José Saramago and includes a CD
with four songs related to landlessness by the celebrated composer and singer
Chico Buarque de Hollanda. 45 of the photos were used in an exhibition throughout
the world.
His statement, recorded in the MST- produced film Roots of the Land,
underlines the importance of the Movement in terms of its participants taking
on responsibilities, once the government, thus far, has not undertaken to rescue
the citizenship of the landless. |
