Marcio Pimenta

Photographer
     
Man and Earth
Location: Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
Nationality: Brazilian
Biography: Marcio Pimenta is a photographer, explorer and visual storyteller who focuses on human, sociocultural issues, identity and climate change. Based in the South of Brazil. His work has been featured in multiple print and online publications... MORE
Public Story
Man and Earth
Copyright Marcio Pimenta 2024
Date of Work Jan 2018 - Ongoing
Updated Apr 2021
Location Latin America
Topics Agribusiness, Agricultural, agricultural fields, Agriculture, Amazon, Amazonas, Atlas, Beautiful, beauty, bio, carbon, cereal, climate, climate change, conservation, conventional agriculture, crop, crop cultivation, crop farmers, landagrarian agriculture, Spotlight
In times of climatic emergency, evidence from the scientific community and the daily lives of different peoples around the world highlights significant tensions within various systems crucial to humanity, particularly the interrelationship between fundamental resources: energy, water, and food. It is certain that climate change will exert additional pressure on these relationships.

I have chosen to document the climate crisis from historical and geographical perspectives. A people's identity is inseparable from culture, politics, historical processes, and place. We need to comprehend how geography shapes everyday life, making it imperative to capture images that serve as repositories of human memories and depict the human condition. How do we access water, energy, and food in different locations, and how do these practices connect regionally and globally?

The tensions between these essential systems will escalate. The so-called "stress nexus" is under greater strain due to the climate crisis caused by human activities on Earth, defining an era known as the Anthropocene. During this period, the technological capacity to transform nature has reached such profound proportions that it contributes to the stress already observable in images. As the geographer Milton Santos stated in 2004, "It can be said that the entire surface of the Earth is compartmentalized, not only by the direct action of man but also by political presence. No fraction of the planet escapes its influence."

"Man and Earth – South America Chapter" is a documentary and artistic exploration, a long-term project currently in progress. Like the outcomes and impacts of climate change, it aims to research, witness, and document a significant issue during this time of climate emergency: the relationship between human beings and geography. This encompasses climate, natural resources, borders, sources of energy, food, cultural identities, economy, and space in a time of complex transition that is also reflected in the daily lives of those who will suffer from climate change before they can adapt.

These stories encompass ruptures and losses of geographical and cultural references but also reflect the search for survival and resilience. Many refuse to abandon the land, the shelter territory, as Milton Santos also acknowledged. It is about the people who inhabit and give meaning to landscapes, experiencing a daily life already shaken by the consequences of climate change. The issue of time is emphasized because it involves a past marked by the exploitation of nature for profit, which continues into the present and points toward possibilities for the future. The question arises: How much time do we have to rectify our destiny? If human experience constructs time, as Eric Hobsbawm demonstrated, then positive changes must already be evident today. Learning from these people and their symbiotic relationship with nature is a path of reflection and action in which photographs can play a role by bringing visibility to these processes.

Since January 2018, I have traversed the continent to document this relationship. These are simple yet profound images: a man harvesting wood, children playing in an Amazon river, expansive deserts, coal mining for energy generation, emerging energy sources, farmers expanding production, the movement of migrants across space, workers clearing forests due to global economic conditions, and rural migrants aspiring to cities whose stories they are unfamiliar with. These experiences encompass our history intertwined with our geography.

I hope that the outcome of this project will serve anthropological, sociological, economic, geographical, historical, aesthetic, and pedagogical purposes. It should be regarded as an atlas that can be opened and explored, a visual representation of the intricate tapestry of human existence in the face of environmental challenges.

Themes: Amazon, Desertification, Immigration, Indigenous, Food Production, Energy Production, Ice Loss in the Andes.

This project has a partnership of Pulitzer Center / Rainforest Journalism Fund.

To know more, please contact me.
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Man and Earth by Marcio Pimenta
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