Final Project Presentation

When I started to work on this project, my idea was to expand on the voyage of discovery that I had undertaken when I developed the academic project “Rethink”. With the “Rethink” assignment, I created a subjective photographic view of South America while trying to express the feelings and impressions that certain experiences in my journey had produced in me. This research helped me to open up new pathways with which to reflect upon documentary photography. As a result of my desire to widen my field of exploration and to discover my own artistic language, I began my research in the Port of Tabatinga in Amazonian Brazil. I´m hoping that this new project will allow me to express myself both through the medium of photography and through my social interests.

I was fascinated from the very moment that I set foot in the Port of Tabatinga, a place that I had been advised not to venture into because the area was known to be particularly dangerous. Known as a strategic location for drug dealers, the Port of Tabatinga is saddled with a bad reputation. Nevertheless, the port constitutes a hub in the heart of Amazonia; its bustling economy attracts a multitude of people hailing from a variety of locations. Hard labour, misery and festivity jostle together in the suffocating humidity and 45-degree heat.

The landscape around the Port of Tabatinga is unexpectedly strange; the port is surrounded by a massive wasteland of earth as far as the eye can see. I’ve been told that the level of the Amazon River has not been this low since 1963. These dry conditions have created many problems for the port workers and for the inhabitants of the area.

Amongst the crowds of people can be found a large number of foreigners from Peru and Colombia; they are here to profit from the favourable Brazilian economy by selling a variety of wares. The authorities apparently tolerate the presence of these illegal workers in the region. I wanted to find out more about these workers and the circumstances that drew them to try their luck in the Port of Tabatinga.