Marcio Pimenta

In 1831, Captain FitzRoy left England aboard the ship Beagle carrying a young man named Charles Darwin. And this trip changed the way we see our place in the world. Darwin, with his incessant curiosity, talent for keen observation, and instinctive perception, understood the world in a completely new way and this resulted in the creation of his most famous theory.

The first important clue that put Darwin on the trail of what would become The Theory of the Evolution of Species - to date the most important single scientific work ever published - actually came not in the wild Galapagos Islands, but three years earlier, in a stormy beach on the north coast of Argentina, in a fossil deposit. Patagonia was a school for the naturalist.

He filled his journals with narratives about the people and landscape of Patagonia. There is no lack of detailed socio-anthropological observations. From colonization, the ongoing genocide in Argentina to his astonishment at meeting the indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego.

Observations of travelers such as Charles Darwin constitute relevant pre-ethnographic testimonies, containing reflections on estrangement and sociocultural differences.

The proposed objective is to travel and photograph, by land and by sea, the trails where Darwin was, documenting his socio-anthropological observations, the landscapes and the legacy still present in Patagonia.

This project ongoing is supported by National Geographic Society.