The Mines of Serra Pelada
Sebastião Salgado is possibly the most famous and eminent photojournalist working today. He embarks on great photographic projects, seeking out places that are untouched by modern humanity and exposing the inhumanities it left behind. If there is one Salgado picture that will stand the test of time, it is this picture of a dispute between Serra Pelada gold mine worker and military police taken in Brazil in 1986. It is the classic picture of tension with a twist–the authority is in the hands of the police on the right, but he earns much less than the miners thus infusing that facet of tension into the picture too.
The tale of Serra Pelada was straight out of the great 19th century gold rushes of Australia and the American west. A 6g nugget of gold, found by a local bathing his child on the banks of a remote river, started an uncontrolled gold rush that turned the place into a modern day Inferno. In five years, tens of thousands of men swarmed the site in a huge goldstrike worth more than the annual output of all Australian gold mines combined. Salgado not only documented a lengthy photoessay about Serra Pelada but also the nearby town of “stores and whores”, where tens of thousands of girls under the age of 16 sold their bodies for a few grains of gold. It is also said there are 60-80 unsolved murders in the town every month.
The government needs to do something about this. This is destroying the environment. I know these people are just trying to make a living, and now the economy is in a shithole. This problem still has to be dealt with.
Poverty
July 2, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I totally agree with you. this needs to be dealt with
Poverty
July 2, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Serra Pelada is pretty much empty for many years already.
Rafael
January 9, 2010 at 12:19 am
Dear Sirs,
Prof. Artioli from the University of Padua is interested in reusing two of your pictures in a textbook. For more detailed information, please contact me at the following e-mail address:
barbara.vianello at unipd.it
Thank you.
barbara
July 14, 2009 at 10:21 am
this website has no reproduction rights. You can contact Mr. Salgado through his agency or a museum.
thequintessential
July 16, 2009 at 8:37 am
Thank you!
barbara
July 30, 2009 at 3:36 pm
So this entire website is a shrine to copyright infringement? Are you collecting ad money from it?
hghf
October 29, 2009 at 8:17 pm
[...] human and environmental consequences. For a positively biblical vision of hell, have a look at Sebastião Salgado’s famous photo-essay on Brazil’s Sierra Pelada goldmine (which is now defunct, leaving a giant open pit that has [...]
» How to buy ethical jewellery Diamond Review:
June 10, 2010 at 6:12 pm
There was an awesome documentary made of this “gold mine” – the whole thing was surreal.
Moon
August 19, 2010 at 3:21 am
[...] description vividly echoes Sebastião Salgado’s photographs of the now defunct Serra Pelada goldmine in Brazil. The scenes look millennia-old – swarms of [...]
Ethical Overhaul Fairtrade & Fairmined Gold — The Propagandist
February 14, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Please, will somebody tell me where and how I can buy a copy of this print?
Ew
March 13, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Do you know how to copy and paste?
garimpo
April 30, 2011 at 8:28 pm
In the 1970s I saw a documentary on this. Left a searing impression on my mind, especially that no work I would ever do could be as hard as the dirt haulers.
If anyone can help me identify that documentary, it would be greatly appreciated. I’ve got some young grandchildren who will need to see it in a few years.
Steve_K
January 6, 2012 at 12:49 pm