São Paulo, Brazil, 2022. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving.

Belo Vale, Brazil, 2018. An object used to torture slaves is seen in the Slavery Museum of Belo Vale. The Slavery Museum is one of thefew institution in Brazil that shows the slavery past of the Country.

Santa Rosa do Pretos, Maranhão, Brazil, 2017. Josiclea “Zica” Pires throws a rock agains the mining company train that cross the lands of the Quilombo. The construction of the rail dried a water channel used for fishing and irrigation by the people of the Quilombo. Today the community doesn’t fish and farm any more.

Santa Rosa do Pretos, Maranhão, Brazil, 2017. Bia, a girl from the Quilombo of Santa Rosa dos Pretos is collecting mangos from the yard tree.

Januaria, Minas Gerais, Brazil 2019. A local boy of the Quilombo of Croatá rides on his horse. The Quilombo’s Community ask several timeto the city hall to take care of the roads but they didn’t carried on the works of maintenance.

Candeias, Bahia, Brazil, 2022. A Quilombola’s activist stands in the ruins of the engenho, an ancient sugar cane mill and the farm. Most of the workers of the engenho were slaves and ancestors of the members of the Quilombo “Boca do Rio”. The ruins of the engenho represent a historical memory for the Quilombolas. In the past the Quilombolas had access to the location by a short walk, today is necessary a 30 minutes trip by boat because local industries forbidden to arrive to the place by land. “Boca do Rio” was community of 6000 people, since the building of the commercial port of Aratu, that surround the Quilombo”, the population dramatically decreased. The constructions works for the port expansion and the presence of several petrochemical companies make the life of the Quilombola very difficult: they don’t have easy access to their home, the city hall service (school bus, tap water, sewer) aren’t provided to the community and the pollution from the companies is very high.

São Paulo, Brazil, 2022. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving

Candeias, Bahia, Brazil, 2022. A member of the Quilombo Boca do Rio, Luciano, shows a fished crabs, the main product sold by the Quilombolas. The waters where they fish are polluted with petrochemical residues and other chemical components.

Belo Vale, Brazil, 2018. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving

Ilha da Maré, Bahia, Brazil, 2020. A group of fisherwomen during a meeting of the Community. The leaders of the Quilombo of Ilha de Maré are mainly women and are the ones that fish and catch seafood. Because of the high petrochemical pollution their still of life has been deeply affected. The Quilombolas claim they are discriminated by environmental racism.

Cananeia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017. Quilombo do Mandira. The youngest son of Chico Mandira, the chief of the Quilombo, retrieves some oysterfrom the oyster farm.

Januaria, Minas Gerais, Brazil 2019.. Quilombo’s farmers rest after a morning of field work. The community of the Quilombo of Croatá is trying to establish some low impact bio culture using the seasonal floods of the Sant Francisco River.

São Paulo, Brazil, 2022. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving.

Januaria, Minas Gerais, Brazil 2019. A local boy of the Quilombo of Croatá play a home made triangle during an improvised music session. The Quilombo’sCommunity ask several time to the city hall to take care of the roads but they didn’t carried on the works of mainteinance.

Belo Vale, Brazil, 2018. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving

Cananeia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017. Quilombo do Mandira. Young boys belonging to the families of the Quilombo take care of the spring waterschannels that arrive to the community.

Barcarena, Pará, Brazil, 2018. Maria do Socorro Silva an activist of one of Barcarena’s Quilombos. Since she reveal the pollution caused byan Aluminium Extraction Company she received several death threats as a warning voice on the telephone, a home intrusion, a punch in the face, a pistol barrel prodded against the ear.

Ilha da Maré, Bahia, Brazil, 2020. Children from Ilha da Maré play while searching for seafood. The Ilha da Mare is the home of several Quilombola’s communities that live of fishing. The waters where they fish are polluted with petrochemical residues and other chemical components. On the land of the island is possible to spot places where the oil come out from the ground. Most of the activists of the Island are women and they carry on the unity of the community and the fight for their basic rights.

Santa Rosa do Pretos, Maranhão, Brazil, 2017. People from the Quilombo Santa Rosa dos Pretos during a religious festivity.

São Paulo, Brazil, 2022. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving.

Santa Rosa do Pretos, Maranhão, Brazil, 2017. A drummer od the Quilombo of Santa Rosa dos Pretos. Drums are an essential part of the Afro-Brazilian culture. In Santa Rosa dos Pretos the drumming tradition was lost until the wo- men of the Quilombo started to play again. Today around 30 people play the drums during the festivity, most of them are women.

Belo Vale, Brazil, 2018. Macro-Photography converted to black and white and digitally processed to re-create a Sabattier effect of a detail from an engraving

Candeias, Bahia, Brazil., 2022. Davi and Elaine’s husband fish in the waters near the Quilombo. “Boca do Rio” was community of 6000 people, since the building of the commercial port of Aratu, that surround the Quilombo”, the population dramatically decreased. The constructions works for the port expansion and the presence of several petrochemical companies make the life of the Quilombola very difficult: they don’t have easy access to their home, the city hall service (school bus, tap water, sewer) aren’t provided to the community and the pollution from the companies is very high.

Januaria, Minas Gerais, Brazil 2019. Caio is trying to fix the water pump in the Saint Francisco River. The Quilombo of Croatá doesn’t have tap water. Despite they requested the installation of the pipes to the City Hall, the construction work are not carried out and also no water truck is sent to the community which have to use the River waters. After the collapse of the mine in Brumadinho the waters of the Saint Francisco River are considered highly polluted.

Belo Vale, Brazil, 2018. An object used to torture slaves is seen in the Slavery Museum of Belo Vale. The Slavery Museum is one of the few institution in Brazil that shows the slavery past of the Country.

Frames of struggle

Systemic Racism: Discrimination or unequal treatment on the basis of membership in a particular ethnic group (typically one that is a minority or marginalized), arising from systems, structures, or expectations that have become established within society or an institution.

Quilombo: A remote settlement originally founded as a refuge by fugitive slaves or their descendants. The remaining quilombo communities were granted special land rights under the Brazilian constitution of 1988.

The Portuguese colonization and the Atlantic Slave Trade are the historical reasons at the bases of the presence of black African people in Brazil. From the XVI century, African black people — mostly from the Western African region — where captured and deported to Brazil to work as slaves in the plantations and the mines. Finally in 1888, Princess Isabel signed the “Lei Aurea”, law that abolished the slavery in the country, Brazil was the last country in the World abolishing slavery. The number of slaves gaining freedom with the Lei Aurea was around 700 thousand but the total number of people of color deported as slaves to Brazil from the beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade to 1888, the year of the Lei Aurea, has been around 4.8 millions. The abolishment of slavery didn’t solve the racism; in a country ruled by a white social class first and by a white military dictatorship it becomes today a systemic racism. Today the ancestor of the people of color that created the Quilombos in the XIX century are still racial discriminated. The racism is so systemic that the even the life style of the Quilomboas Communities is threaten. In this scenario of systemic, environmental and interpersonal racism the Quilombola’s activist fight to have their rights recognized.

Frames of Struggle | Quadros de Luta contrasts the historical representation of African slaves with images of activism and resistance of Afro-Brazilian Quilombolas. The historical representations structure the work through a photographic reproduction of their details. Historical images of oppression and violence are contrasted with photographs of activists from several Quilombola communities, located in Brazilian territory. The project seeks to build a new narrative/visual history of the Afro-Brazilian subject. Through a dialogue between techniques and contents are intended to present other “struggle frameworks” to dismantle the imagetic racism that guides Brazilian society.

Frames of struggle

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