Engenheiro Dolabela
Genre cover by Guilherme Bergamini
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“The photograph “Engenheiro Dolabela” is a social critique — a visual metaphor of my artistic practice, combining aesthetic beauty and political engagement.
Engenheiro Dolabela, a district of Bocaiúva, is located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Until 1997, Industrial Malvina was a sugar and alcohol mill. After it was declared bankrupt, the 800 former workers did not receive their severance pay. The State of Minas Gerais took possession of approximately 19,000 hectares belonging to Industrial Malvina and transferred them to the federal government, which in turn passed them on to the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). For two decades, creditors have been fighting to receive their compensation, but due to delays, many have already passed away.”
Guilherme Bergamini was born in Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil, on October 17, 1978. His first contact with photography came at the age of 18, when he borrowed an analog Pentax MX camera.
The following year, he set up a black-and-white lab in his grandmother’s house. That was when he became fascinated by the alchemy of the process and by the visual possibilities that art can offer.
The visual artist’s research moves between memory and social-political critique, guided by the creation of visual narratives that tell stories through photography. With national and international awards and exhibitions, Bergamini’s work follows a path of narrative experimentation and independent production.
Publishing photobooks has always been one of his greatest aspirations as a visual artist, and the realization of his first one came in 2015. In 2021, Bergamini released Carta Branca, his third independent photobook. The publication was a finalist at Photobook Week Aarhus in Denmark, and at the Hong Kong Photobook Dummy Award.