Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Serra Pelada, Brazil (Cast of Thousands)

Preview image of work. gelatin silver print, Serra Pelada, Brazil (Cast of Thousands) 15460

2007.7

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Serra Pelada, Brazil (Cast of Thousands)

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Artist

Sebastião Salgado (Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2/8/1944 - )

Title

Serra Pelada, Brazil (Cast of Thousands)

Creation Date

1986 (printed 2004)

Century

late 20th-early 21st century

Dimensions

19 3/4 in. x 23 15/16 in. (50.17 cm x 60.8 cm)

Classification

Photographs

Creation Place

South America, Brazil

Medium and Support

gelatin silver print

Credit Line

Museum Purchase, Collector's Collaborative and the Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2007.7

The Serra Pelada, Brazil’s largest and most dangerous gold mine, sits in the northern state of Pará. Though the mine now lies beneath the surface of an artificial lake, Sebastião Salgado documented the horrors of the site in its final year of operation. Many workers flocked to Serra Pelada with hope for a better future, despite making, on average, sixty cents for each trip up and down these treacherous cliffs, carrying heavy sacks. Many of those who took this risk were poor Afro-Brazilians who lacked opportunity due to institutional discrimination, violence, and intergenerational poverty stemming from that nation’s early history as a slave-holding nation. Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery in 1888.