"A Gente Transforma" (literally "We Transform"), is a project idealized by Marcelo Rosenbaum, developed with the community and Rosenbaum's team: 47 people that included designers, students, volunteers, film-makers, journalists, spiritual leaders, architects, and me, as the photographer. During a few weeks, the work was developed in Várzea Queimada, a drought-plagued Piauí community of 900 people of mixed indigenous and black ancestry, at Piauí State, Brazil. To see images from the catalogue developed during this project, check out the images: CATALOGO TOCA: http://bit.ly/NCDDvL

Brazil/ Venezuela - Travel / Adventure

Brazil holds the mark for largest producer of bleached eucalyptus cellulose. Industrial units distributed between the northern Espírito Santo and southern Bahia states explore the area and destroyed the landscape with large areas of monoculture. Cellulose companies there have been linked to several crimes, including money laundering, fraud, corruption, tax evasion, environmental and labor crimes. The region's companies also joined the army officers to evict traditional and indigenous communities residents who inhabited the region. Brazil exports millions tons of cellulose and paper every year. Mostly bleached cellulose is exported to Europe, China and North America. See the gallery large here: http://www.tatianacardeal.com/#!/portfolio/G00007tLm3uQkFYg/1

In the Brazilian northeast, a community that survives by gathering wild fruit is threatened with extinction. They are mostly black and native women who pick mangaba and for generations have lived by collecting this fruit that grows naturally on the Brazilian coast in the state of Sergipe. The gathering of mangaba is the basis of livelihood of more than 5 thousand people in situations of social vulnerability, and the construction of a bridge changed the economic profile of the region and real estate speculation and the devastation of green areas and ecosystems has put pressure on the gathers who struggle to maintain their strongest traditions. Each year these women pick 280 tons of mangaba and sustain an intense network of small businesses at fairs and markets. Nevertheless, these traditional communities are threatened by landowners who started to prohibit collection of the fruit, which could lead to hunger many families who depend on gathering mangaba to survive. In Sergipe, 90% of the mangaba is found in areas of native forest, where the traditional populations gather the fruit as a means of survival. The privatization of the spaces where there are mangabeiras and deforestation are decreasing the collection areas. An entire way of life in harmony with the environment could disappear with the devastation of the natural ecosystems, which are being replaced by subdivisions, industrial shrimp raising, sugar cane crops and a real state development (vacation homes, condos, hotels). The farms and lands where gathering had been permitted have been increasingly and rapidly fenced in. The attempt by the Mangaba pickers to organize their search for lands where they can continue to gather alerted the large land owners to agrarian reform. With fear of losing their lands, farms that until recently were nothing more than large open areas with lots of native mangabeira trees were fenced-in, and guards posted to keep the pickers away.

22 familes were living at Itacoatiara Mirim, a Baniwa Indigenous Community nearby the remote São Gabriel da Cachoeira town, at the Amazonas Brazilian state. Seeking to recover and keep alive their cultural traditions after leaving the original tribe, the group built this "Maloca", also known as House of Knowledge. "The House is an area of transmission and learning of the traditional culture for those who do not know, or forgot. It's to talk, to tell stories, reliving the custom to eat together. A place to dance and make instruments, showing to the young our culture" explained Mestre Luiz Laureano, the community leader. "The House of Knowledge is also to receive relatives who come from the original tribe to share the stories of our families who are still living there. Is a school that will pass knowledge. " São Gabriel da Cachoeira town, Amazonas state, Brazil.

Projeto Saude e Alegria, the PSA (Health and Happiness Project) is a non profit civil institution working in Para State, where doctors, dentists, educators and actors go to the communities along the Tapajos and Arapiuns Rivers, using boats, visiting places without social public services, bringing health and social sustainable development. In 2006, I was invited to visit the PSA for a few days, with a group of businessmen who were researching about social responsibility in the Amazonia area. This series was born during this time, and result in fragments of some Tapajos communities' life shared with the PSA Project. Population living along these rivers are mostly indigenous descendants living in small villages, strongly connected with the forest, the rivers and the nature forces. Distances in Amazonia are large and the path are mostly rivers, health services are rare along the rivers, and the boat from PSA is always welcome and received with happiness. I shared some amazing experiences there, like the changing of humor from the children when PSA clowns and doctors started working: "health for the body, happiness for the soul" as they use to say; living without electric energy for a while; being pushed to other fields of communication by people with Down syndrome; the Piracaia party, which is a night happening where a fish barbecue is made at the river's beach, on the sand, joining all the native community together, to share food, stories and a painted sky with stars beside the fire... (personally, these reinforced my own convictions of how simple and pleasant life can be with a small group of basic things beside a strong and powerful nature).

Images shot during a few days on a boat trip through the Rio Negro to the extreme northwest of Amazonas state. From Manaus city to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira town. Amazonas, Brazil.

These images are part of a documentation that I have been conducting, produced at one of Brazil’s largest indigenous celebrations. They use to take place in Bertioga, a city just over 100 kilometers from São Paulo, the largest city in South America. The encounter brings together nearly 600 representatives from many distant regions of Brazil to celebrate in a large cultural festival. It is a spectacle at which they present and reinforce the traditions of their different native ethnic groups.

Brazil Photos of the Indigenous National Party, where almost 600 indigenous from different ethnic groups gathered to celebrate their culture. Ethnic groups from all sides of the country, including Xingu People: Kayapo, Xerente, Manoki (Irantxe), Assurini, Yawalapiti, Bororo, Terena, Gaviao (Timbira). © Tatiana Cardeal Photography - Bertioga, Sao Paulo state, Brazil.

A Diary of Exclusion: Considered the largest vertical occupation in Latin America, the building was an old textile factory abandoned, and the owners owed millions in taxes to the municipal government. Some 2.000 people were living there, members of the Downtown Homeless Movement, which was led by 10 women from various occupied sites in the city. They were well organized, formed by thousands of people who formerly lived on the street, in squares or under bridges and overpasses. Like an army without shelter, they founded the Homeless Movement not only as a way to struggle for the right to housing, but to restore their own dignity, unraveled by lack of care and social segregation. There is tremendous prejudice in Brazil against the homeless, who are often accused of being "rabble rouser" and "invaders" of empty and abandoned buildings. There are more than 400 sealed or under utilized buildings in downtown Sao Paulo. It is in these locations that the homeless want to live. Nevertheless, in recent years, "urban revitalization" projects have given emphasis to raising real estate values, and there is no room for the homeless. They are evicted towards the periphery. These revitalization projects sponsored by the city government and private companies (pressure of property speculation) do not give priority to reduce inequalities, but to exclusion, a social apartheid, which often includes violent actions from shock troops, security forces and private security. After almost 5 years of occupation, in May 2007, a meeting joined leaders from federal, state and municipal sphere, giving a new direction for the Prestes Maia families. A progressive and pacific withdrawal happened and the occupation was closed. Many had moved to with a support of the federal government, but are still waiting their promise: reform and rent for fair values social habitations for them. Since July, 2007, the Prestes Maia building is closed, sealed with concrete blocks.

The VII World Social Forum was beginning at Nairobi city in 2007. Kenya had just left behind several years of its dictatorial regime, and was starting to experience some democracy. More than 50 000 people from everywhere around the world were joined together for 6 days to assist conferences. It was the first time the World Social Forum took place in Africa. The Forum is usually held at the same time than its opponent, the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. Thousands of activists from all over the world attended the WSF meeting at Kasarani Stadium to discuss and debate social issues. Based on the slogan "Another world is possible" ("Dunia Mbadala Yawezekana"), the WSF is an annual meeting organized by members of the alter-globalization movement. This is a showcase of what I've seen those days, in 2007, a few sides of Kenya. A home of hope, but also of fear.

The Kibera Slums, an area 5 Kilometers Southwest of the city centre of Nairobi, is the most populated informal settlement in East Africa, housing more than one quarter of Nairobi's population. The name 'Kibera' is a Nubian word for 'forest'. Kibera is roughly 2 Kilometres squared with an estimated population of 1 million people. There are no residential buildings over a single storey. The average home size in Kibera is 3 meters by 3 meters, with an average of five persons per dwelling. Urban services such as water or sanitation are minimal. There is an average of one pit latrine for every 50 to 500 people.

Catalogue TOCA - commissioned work produced for A Gente Transforma, a project idealized by Marcelo Rosenbaum, that seeks to show the Brazilian design soul developed in partnership with the local community of Várzea Queimada, Piauí State, Brazil. At the community, the creation of Carnaúba straw pieces is one activity typically of women. The men work with rubber, recycling tires to produce jewelry and pieces for decoration. For more info and images from this project, check this link: http://bit.ly/NCDYyB

Commissioned work for the Sunday Times Travel. Icons of South America: Two to Tango.

Commissioned work for AVINA Foundation (Fundación AVINA) about the Catadores - Pickers of garbage selecting recyclable materials, working in two Sao Paulo city projects supported by Avina Foundation.

Papel Social Comunicação www.papelsocial.com.br

Arturos' Celebration Congado and Mozambique are cultural and religious manifestations blending aspects of the Catholicism with African traditions. These festivities take place in some regions of Brazil. One of the most traditional is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which happens in the traditional community Arturos. Called as Arturos, approximately 400 people who reside in a collective farm in the state of Minas Gerais, in the central Brazil. The Arturos are all related to each other, descendants of Arthur Camilo Silverio, a former slave who inherited the farm where now lives the community. Here, residents keeps alive the ancient festivities brought to Brazil, hundreds of years ago by the African slaves.