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Garimpeiro

2015

Minas Gerais is a province in Brazil and is famous for it’s mines – Minas Gerais literally means ‘general mines’. The mining here started with the gold rush of Portuguese settlers about 300 years ago.
Although the golden age of mining has passed already a long time ago, there are still few places left were people are digging for gold, diamonds and other precious stones.

The garimpeiros, as the brazilian miners are called, are often living here in makeshift barracks and working in poor and dangerous conditions. Some mines are even located in some kind of lawless gold and diamond seeker's paradise where robberies, drug abuse and shootings are present dangers. But nothing seems to be able to stop them in their daily search for eternal wealth.

The project ‘Garimpeiro’ gives an insight in the daily life of these people who are looking for fortune but might not always find enough of it.