Salgado, Sebastião: Terra - Struggle of the Landless

Phaidon Press

1998

First Edition

This volume tells the story of the forced migration of the Brazilian peasants and their struggle to survive in the face of joblessness and extreme poverty. In a series of photographs Salgado shows the efforts of the peasants to reclaim the arable land they see as their natural heritage, and recounts how this fight has often resulted in bloodshed. He was present at a farm in the state of Para on 17 April 1996 when nineteen peasants were massacred by soldiers during a demonstration. His empathy and understanding of the victims' plight and of human nature unbowed in the face of terrible adversity shines forth in these photographs, which are introduced by the Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, and accompanied by poems by the Brazilian composer and popular singer Chico Buarque de Hollanda.