ORIGINS

Origins gathers cyanotypes made along the Estrada Real in Minas Gerais, printed with iron salts and toned in coffee, tracing what mining and slavery left: fasting masks, abandoned mines, scrap iron, saints.

Origins is a body of work that attempts to scratch the surface of a rich but

brutal history—a history of discovery and exploitation in the mineral-rich

region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In Portuguese, the word exploração translates

as both "exploitation" and "exploration," a linguistic duality that captures the

essence of this land's story. My work cannot begin to describe the wounds left

on the earth and humanity by human avarice; I can only try to document the

marks left behind.

This project consists of coffee-stained cyanotypes, created using one of the

first photographic processes developed in the mid-19th century. The principal

active ingredient is iron salts, evoking the area known as the "Iron Triangle"

where this imagery was captured. The state contains the world's richest veins

of iron ore, and mining comprises much of its economic activity today. Slavery

was essential to the gold mining cycle that began in the 17th century and

preceded the current iron industry. While Brazil abolished slavery in 1888—

the last country in the Americas to do so—its systems and structures persist

to this day.

The process of staining the images with coffee not only alters their color and

tone but also references one of slavery's primary activities in 19th-century

Brazil: the harvesting of coffee beans. The coffee and iron salts used to render

these images are themselves commodities still produced in the region,

alongside gold, silver, and the exploitation of human labor. The staining

process resonates with the idea of remnants. My work records both the

reflections and shadows I perceive of this history and its direct evidence.

My work is concerned with recording the reflections and shadows of a history

that remains opaque at best. As in my own country, the United States, it is a

sordid story that has permeated society's bedrock foundations. Capitalism,

colonialism, and political systems were all created with explicit disregard for

the human beings they commodified—people considered less valuable than

the minerals they extracted to be sent back to Portugal.

In Brazil, the Estrada Real (Royal Road) extended from Paraty on the coast to

Diamantina in the interior of Minas Gerais—a town named for its diamond

discoveries and extraction. The Royal Road was a tool of supremacy designed

to guarantee the flow of mineral wealth from Brazil to Portugal.

Simultaneously, it was meant to limit Brazil's potential by making it

dependent on and subservient to Portugal. Despite its grandiose name, the

Estrada Real was designed to choke Brazil's ability to stand independently.

The country was kept poorly educated, and all manufactured goods were

meant to come from Portugal, with the intention of making Brazil a

permanent vassal to the crown.

As both a historian and photographer, I am fascinated by this system of

supremacy—its intricate mechanisms of control that people learned to live

with. Those who held power became the elites, while those who toiled under

their yoke became accustomed to what they could not change. The system

was installed, and society grew around it, just as it did in the United States.

The modern institutions of capitalism were being invented at the time, and

they too accommodated themselves to the prevailing systems of supremacy.

Despite these evil legacies, there is a bright side. The culture of the peoples

who were part of this complex system exists vibrantly today. The incredible

culture of colonial Brazil is exemplified by UNESCO World Heritage cities like

Ouro Preto, Congonhas, and Diamantina—breathtaking in their beauty.

Equally incredible is the culture that developed from the African peoples

brought to mine the riches so desired by the Portuguese crown. Today, these

places stand as monuments to a past built on ambition and avarice.

To know more visit https://origins.vip