What do we know about brazilian childhoods? What do we know about children who live in rural settlements? What do we know about children and social movements?
“todesnafoto” (lit. everyoneinthephoto) was a research project coordinated by Daniela Finco, professor at EFLCH, UNIFESP and that had the participation of Marcia Gobbi, professor at FE-USP and undergrad and grad students from both universities. The main focus of the investigation was the children from Dom Tomaz Balduino settlement, connected to the MST, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra (lit. Movement of Landless Rural Workers), located in Franco da Rocha County, State of São Paulo. There were monthly and weekly travels to the settlement throughout 2011. The methodological resources of the research were pinhole, digital and analogical photographs, made by children with ages ranging from 3 to 12 years old. The landless children had the digital cameras for a week, and they photographed their daily life. In other moments, we put together pinhole photography workshops or promoted the use of analogical cameras. This particular choice of methodological instruments is justified by the interest in the interpretation of the understanding that the children have of the world, which is an autonomous world, and not a reflexion of adult views. Our goal was to discover the settlement kid’s daily ways of life alongside their surrounding areas, friends and family members.
We have on this website about 500 pictures taken by children and a booklet derived from this research. We believe we can contribute to researches concerning children in social movements and fights for land.