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PHOTOGRAPHY
May 2021
haunting shadows
guilherme bergamini
Fazenda das Areias is located five kilometres from the centre of Sete Lagoas in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. At a size of 200 hectares, the land was home to cattle, poultry, fish, pigs, and due to its rich and fertile soil, corn fields. I remember in my childhood, walking through this lush savannah, playing among the vines. The happiness I felt there can only be compared to the sensation of flying, and the glow of a sunset, as only a bird can experience it, that is, unfettered. At night, in the light of the full moon, the landscape is home to shadowy volumes constantly moving, and in the monsoon season the vegetation changes and a symphony of frogs break through the silence of the night. In 1996 the land began to be sold off, bit by bit: first replaced with a railway factory, then a suburban neighbourhood. In 2011, millions of litres of sewage leaked from pipelines, contaminating the water tables and polluting the drinking water. The sewage flows into two lagoons, erasing this landscape which was, for years, shaped only by the gentle rainwater that fell on it.
GUILHERME BERGAMINI, from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, uses photography as a means of political and social criticism. The recipient of numerous awards in national and international competitions, Guilherme has participated in festivals and collective exhibitions in Brazil, Germany, Lithuania, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Hungary, Scotland, Portugal, Russia, United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia , Bangladesh, Turkey, India, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Peru, Nigeria, Georgia and Sweden. WEBSITE. INSTAGRAM.
(Image credits: Series: Haunting Shadows, Polyptych of 8, Mineral Pigment on Cotton Paper, Edition of 7, Signed, Dated, Numbered, 60 x 180cm, 2012, Sete Lagoas - Minas Gerais, by kind permission of the artist.)