The photography exhibition "Another Family Letter from Ms. Anna" by Tiago Coelho, a photographer who won the 2021 Itaú Cultural Rumos Program in Brazil, will soon be held at 5A1 Art Space.
Tiago Coelho is a visual artist born in Da Patruela, Santo Antonio, Brazil. He majored in film and completed a master's degree in documentary photography in Spain in his early years.
He is currently engaged in photography teaching and is the director of Fluxo Photography School (Porto Alegre, Brazil). Tiago's image creation details the survival scene in Latin America with rigorous documentary discourse, focusing on the scenes of people in this rapidly changing era.
Through the narration of the protagonist, Ms. Anna, Another Letter from Ms. Anna slowly tells the story of her ordinary life and the times. Brazil has a vast territory and rich resources, but the economic development gap between the north and the south is huge. The north is developing slowly and the living conditions are relatively poor. Anna and her family have moved many times to find better water sources and soil.
In 1962, when Anna was 16 years old, she resolutely left her family and drifted to Sao Paulo, a big city thousands of kilometers away, to find a livelihood. During this journey of more than 4,000 kilometers, she could only rely on odd jobs to make a living. She tried hard to learn to write and tried to contact her family. Unfortunately, her hometown moved again and again, and the letters could not be sent. She eventually lost all contact with her family.
"I went to do housework, but I didn't know much about finance, and I couldn't read, so I was deceived many times. As a result, I experienced a lot of difficulties."
For more than 40 years, missing her family far away has been an indescribable torment for Ms. Ana.
Here is the narration of photographer Diago: "Ana's story is also a microcosm of the reality of thousands of Brazilians who migrate from the north and northeast regions, hoping (and sometimes fantasizing) to find better opportunities in the south of the country. As a photographer, I realized that this was an opportunity to look at migration from another perspective - the perspective of return."
Translation of the Letter:
When I was 10 we moved to a place called Pitoró. I always worked in the fields, it was far from home. My father lived by hunting and fishing, he loved to grow rice and harvest beans, corn, cassava and cotton with us. I loved doing this work.
There were dense forests, monkeys, deer, baca, armadillos, kutia, snakes and red-footed tortoises.
One day a leopard appeared between our house and the fields. It didn't bite, it just roared. We had to run away many times because it came close to our fish. The leopard roared near us and we had to run away. I was 10 years old then, and nothing happened until I was 12, I was still playing.
One summer day, it was very dry that summer, there was no water. We saw a crab hole, the soil was wet, and we dug from 8 am to 5 pm to find more water. It was terrible without water to take a bath. It was God who led us to that place. We dug for three days, and the place where we got water dried up.
On August 23, 1962, I left my parents' house because I suffered a lot and they beat me when I grew up, so I decided to end it all. The outside world was big and the border of Pará was desolate. I went to work as a domestic worker and didn't know about finance nor can I read, so I was deceived many times. I experienced a lot of difficulties because of this.
I worked in a family for a year and left that family because of illness. I went to live with my grandmother who was very poor for a while. After I recovered, I found a job in another family. At the beginning, because I couldn't read, I spent a whole night on the street because I couldn't find the family I worked for. The next morning, I found that it was actually very close. So I decided to learn and not go through that kind of hardship again.
About the Artist:
Tiago Coelho (born in Santo Antonio da Patrula, Brazil, 1985) studied Cinema (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and holds a Master's degree in Photojournalism from the European Free Trade Association (Madrid, Spain).
He is currently a professor of photography at the Unisinos University and works as a freelance documentary photographer.
Awards:
Selected for the World Press Photo Masterclass in Latin America. Mexico, 2015.
Biennial of Photography 05, Musee Branly, Paris, France. 2015.
2015 Conrad Wessel Art Foundation Award (2 winners). São Paulo, 2016.
Honorable Mention at the Brazil Photo Festival. São Paulo, SP, Brazil, 2017.
Honorable Mention at POY LATAM (Picture of the Year). Barcelona, 2017.
Shortlisted for the Photogrvphy Award 2017. London, England, 2017.
Honorable Mention at FINI (Festival International de la Image) 2017. Hidalgo, Mexico, 2017.
Nominated for the 6×6 Global Talent Program 2017 by World Press Photo.
Nominated for the Infinity Award 2017. ICP – International Center of Photography. New York, 2017
Winner (2nd place) at FINI 2016 (International Image Festival). Hidalgo, Mexico, 2016.
Selected at the Caminos Conjuntos MUFF Photo Festival. Montevideo, Uruguay, 2016.
Nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass (World Press Photo) 2015 and 2017 and the Foam Paul Huf Award 2013.
