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A lesson in empathy!!!
Will blow you away, you will not know yourself...
A mirror pointed at our soul

Terra: Struggle of the Landless
Chico Buarque De Hollanda , and Chico Buarque
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Sebastiao Salgado: Workers
Sebastiao Salgado: The Children
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Sebastiao Salgado: An Uncertain Grace
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ASIN: 0714836362

Amazon.com

"Because death belongs to all, so too should life," observes Portuguese writer José Saramago in a preface to this remarkable volume of black-and-white images. But death is easy and life is hard in Sebastião Salgado's native Brazil, where exploitation of labor and mechanization of agriculture have combined to paint a bleak future for the country's rural population. Even the faces of small children are clouded with despair in this book, which is at once a testament to human courage and a powerful argument for agrarian reform--a long-promised and long-delayed reform that has led to a bloody struggle to take possession of unused land in private hands.

Customer Reviews:

A lesson in empathy!!!.......2003-03-27

A poignant illustration of the landless plight in Brazil! As evidenced by another reviewer, this book has the ability to thaw the heart of even the most ultra conservative (e.g. "Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice.") They are landless because most middle-class Brazilians view the landless as making horrible life choices as opposed to being pushed by the wind of fate...and ironically they think descendents of Africans in the United States have much to teach "their" Amerindians and African populations about success. The irony! Yes, read it, see it, and see yourself.

Will blow you away, you will not know yourself..........2002-12-19

I took a look at this book in a book store, here in Berkeley Ca. The people you meet as you flip thru the photos make you want to re-examine your own life. Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice. Salgado has not photographed them for pity or to gain sympathy from you, as much as he has shown you a side of yourself... and I am not talking about a "mirror" either. (I am talking about the side that you CAN'T see without Salgado's camera)

These people struggle and may suffer personal tragedies, but there is dignity in their souls. When you see these people, they may not be in control of their fate, whatever terrible fate it may be, but they are in control of their hearts. The blood that runs through the veins of the people Salgado introduced me to, in the photos from the other side of the globe, flows deeper, and redder, and richer than does the blood in my world...

Their lives are fleeting and so is yours my friend, but I believe they have wings; we do not. While you and I are burdened with the weight of unfunny jokes and political scandals, they are free, burdened only with broken hearts and bones that heal fast and clean...

I could not afford the price of the book myself, I could barely afford to stand there as long as I did reading the book; I mean how long can one view a side of oneself so rarely llumiminated?

Once I thought, all I needed to know was God, or to know a beautiful woman, or maybe just smile to bystanders... but I realize I KNOW NOTHING... and that leaves a lot for me to want to know, still. Good luck to you if you should get this book.

A mirror pointed at our soul.......1997-09-02

Once again, Sebastiao Salgado is back, and with two heavy weights by his side: Jose Saramago (preface) and Chico Buarque (poems).
Like all his previous works, the camera that made `Terra' points to the heart of all human being worthy of that classification; with Chico's poems pointing at each ones soul and Saramago's pen pointing at our conscience (and that of God), if this book does not make us see the world in a whole different way, then we better worry before looking at the mirror...
Fernando Gouveia (fgouveia@marao.utad.pt), Vila Real, Portugal

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