"Dear Father, what day are you coming home? I am waiting for you. Okay, Daddy?"
This is just one of the many heart-felt messages in a series of letter correspondences between a child and her father, who has been pulled away by the demands of work in the sugarcane fields of Brazil. A collection of letters, along with photos of these split families, are a part of Pai, Estou Te Esperando/Father, I Am Waiting For You, a visual documentary now on display on the first floor of the Sanford Institute for Public Policy.
Emma Raynes, a visiting Lewis Hine Fellow for the Center of Documentary Studies, spent 11 months in Brazil interacting with these families whose fathers are gone six to 10 months of the year cutting sugarcane in Sao Paulo, a city along the southeast border.
During these working months, the rest of the family resides in Jequitinhonha Valley. The distance greatly weakens family ties, and with only their memories to keep them company, many children do not remember their fathers when they finally return home. The booming sugar and ethanol industry affords these men the opportunity to work, albeit for low wages, but the emotional strain the separation creates is an issue that is often overlooked.
Raynes worked closely with the staff members involved with Cidade Criança, a project part of a non-governmental organization that is interested in the development of children affected by seasonal migration.
She initiated the letter-correspondence program between seven fathers and their families and also recorded voice clips of the fathers and children interacting before the men went off to the sugarcane fields. The recordings were then burned to a compact disc and given to both workers and families as a tangible reminder of each other.
"The pieces are about human connections and how families connect with each other", Raynes said.
Photos in the series are simple yet moving-the stoic expression of a father while he holds his child in his arms masks greater anxieties that the newborns may not yet fully understand. Other images are even more disheartening. In one case, a close-up shot of a family pet is paired with a letter that states, "Dear Father, our puppy was blinded in one eye."
Such events, ones usually shared in the moment, must now be revealed through paper and print and travel hundreds of miles in order for the message to be received. But this is a sacrifice workers make, a reality many of us have a hard time grasping.
"[These families] live day-to-day on whatever money they have," Raynes said. "You get a sense of the stress of 'how I'm going to feed my children?' which isn't necessarily a stress that people who go to Duke or people like me have."
Besides shedding light on the emotional aspect of seasonal migration, Raynes is also interested in the policy issues pertaining to poor families who are forced into such work.
"Brazil's unregulated exploitation of workers contributes to its ability to be one of the world's most cost-effective producers of sugar-based ethanol," Raynes states in the documents describing her exhibit. "[Increased monoculture of crops like ethanol produce] environmental degradation and tear at the economic and social fabric of rural farmworkers."
Depicting more than just a way of life, the showcase also seeks to raise social and political awareness.
"I think there's an important way to see the human dimension of policy problems," the artist said. "This is at the Institute of Public Policy for the reason of seeing how policy related to workers, the economy of monoculture, biofuels, sugar industry [and] how decisions on upper levels can affect families."
Alex Harris, the creative director of the Hine Fellow Program, oversaw Raynes in her project and believes it is at the "heart of documentary tradition" and that it guides viewers to appreciate a different perspective.
"Documentary work can help us care about significant policy issues in a way that wouldn't otherwise be possible," Harris wrote in an e-mail. "Raynes is a truly fine photographer, whose work and personal connection to the families help us to understand the often hidden human dimensions of large policy issues."
Capturing a state of affairs where policy and personal stories intertwine, Raynes said she hopes students will be moved to bring about change.
"[The exhibit is] an artistic practice, something that wouldn't necessarily fit in a museum," Raynes said. "The point is not to have just a certain art population see it. I want it to... encourage people who are engaged in projects... to reflect on how their work and future decisions are going to affect others."
Pai, Estou Te Esperando/Father, I am Waiting For You will be displayed at the Sanford Institute until July 31, 2008.
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