This essay portrays a family of the "Sertão do Ceará", an arid region in the Northeast of Brazil. They make their living by farming a piece of land that they do not own. In this poor province where water resources are scarce and difficult to access, droughts and famine remain every day threats.
This essay portrays one of the families living in “Sertão do Cearáâ€, an arid region in the Nordeste of Brasil.
Like many small farmers of the area, they practice subsistence agriculture on a parcel of land they do not own. As compensation, a portion of their harvest is given to the landlord each year.
With little ability to save and no title to the land they work, these farmers are locked into a vicious circle of poverty. The Brazilian government estimates that as many as 20 million people of the Nordeste live under these conditions.
Since 2003, the national program “Fome Zero†(Zero Hunger) officially guarantees everyone the right of access to basic food. The program, with a goal to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in Brazil, was created by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva whose family left the Nordeste backlands to escape poverty when he was an infant. Although criticized for its paternalistic approach on income distribution, Fome Zero has improved living conditions for many of the indigent by stimulating consumption through direct financial aid. However, limited access to water resources still makes the Nordeste vulnerable to droughts and famines.
“Nordeste, a family portrait†was begun in 2009. This is the first chapter in an ongoing project to document the intimate lives of several rural families who struggle against socio-economic uncertainties in a hostile climate. I intend to regularly return to the Nordeste and, by combining the real and the poetic, produce a body of work that celebrates the grace of ordinary people by going beyond reality into an aesthetical representation of life.