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RIR December 23, 202140275.jpg

Mariano, MST Mario Lago, 2022.

PEOPLE

"At the beginning of our journey, we realized that while in urban settings seeds are seemingly inert, small, and lifeless, for the guardians, there was a humanized language they used to describe the seeds in their collections. This made us understand the horizontality of the relationship between humans and non-humans and their centrality to the story we wanted to tell.

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One of the stories that captivated us the most, right from the start, was from a farmer in one of the settlements of the Landless Workers' Movement we visited, who, while showing us his collection, also offered some sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum). By itself, this sesame did not possess very special attributes within the aesthetic criteria we had established for the project.

Moreover, it is a tiny seed, posing a great technical challenge to photograph. However, he told us that during the pandemic, when the economy became unstable and people's movements were restricted, the marketing of the vegetables produced by that family's agriculture was directly affected, and thus, the unexpected demand for sesame was what ensured sustenance for everyone at home.

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The reverence with which he addressed the sesame, the care with which he handled the minute seeds, describing simultaneously their growth cycle and personality as if speaking of a friend, made us understand that we had a mission far beyond the aesthetic or photographic; our commitment was also to these people, to the importance these treasures had in their history, and how the food and economic autonomy they provided impacted an entire community." Matheus Pockstaller, founder of Trovão Tropical.

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