Private Story
Altamira
“Altamira” aims to show what is behind the fires of the Amazonian region, in the neuralgic region where it all started. The work makes a panorama of the direct consequences of the threats that are installed in the Amazonia today: invasions of indigenous lands, hydroelectric, illegals deforestations, cattle and minings, violence and drug trafficking. The city reunite all these activities and expects an even worse reality for the near future. In the region justice and human rights are being violated with support from the actual government; it is a true "western" reality under the Amazonian forest in Brazil, which is living under threaten from an imposed continuous mentality of colonial exploitation.
Altamira is the second largest urban area in the world and is located in the Para region. On the edge of the Xingu River, the place was once a confluence of 9 different indigenous ethnic groups, with a large population in Brazil and well-marked cultures. Today Altamira is the base of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, whose construction was surrounded by environmental destruction and disrespect for local, indigenous and riverside communities. Several species of fishes have disappeared, the waters are contaminated, the riverside population - suffering health diseases- were displaced into the middle of the drug traffic war in the favelas; and indigenous people denaturalized from their ways of life. Altamira is the starting point of fires in the Amazonia forests last year: the growing illegal deforestation is an evident sign of the arrival of the agricultural frontier, with the rapid increase of the cattle breeding in the region.
The production of this investigative Story was surrounded by pre-warnings and great care. The characters interviewed could be murdered and many of them were afraid or refused to talk. In the region of Para murders are very common and deliberate, few cases being resolved in court. The mayor of Altamira himself is accused of murdering the nun and activist, Dorothy Stang, in 2005. Working in Altamira requires a significant financial structure, insurance and a great prior organisation (one intense month was needed to start). Over the course of 22 days, I traveled with the fixer an average of 300km on dirt roads per day, entering areas of illegal deforestation whose danger was imminent. Interviewing threatened people, who were being watched and poisoned. In Bolsonaro's Brazil, journalists are increasingly persecuted. The country fell to 105th place of press freedom in the Reporters Without Borders ranking of 2019.
This Story exemplifies my deep commitment to democracy, to the defence of minorities and of the environment, in a quest to portray and understand the post-colonial realities in the globalised world, both in Brazil and in other countries. These are values that I have defended and portrayed since the beginning of my career; values that also reflect the ethics so defended by the photographer Anja Niedringhaus, whose work is an important source of inspiration, strength and honour to us, female photographers. "Altamira" is the only investigative Story made by a women photo-journalist in the Amazon region post fires.
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