Terra Preta, Amazonas

In 2016, I visited Terra Preta as part of the Lo Peix river cruise, along with some other first time tourists from Hawaii. We found a modern (for Rio Negro standards) village perched on a river bank, with the usual activities on display for the visitors such as manioc production and handcraft sales, which these people depend on for sustenance (former) and extra income (latter). I say 'modern' since this was not one of those for-tourists experiences where the "natives" wear their traditional or ancestral costumes and dance half naked in circles chanting. There was one of those visits also but Terra Preta was not it.

One of the things I did that year was take some photos of the kids who were hanging around, playing. As I did, more and more got interested in the idea and so I was left with a small collection of photos of the kids, mostly girls and one or two shy boys posing, climbing trees and so on.

In 2017, I made another visit to the area with the Lo Peix crew and some friends from home, who had heard about my previous trip and were excited to see the Amazon. And since Terra Preta was again on the menu, I printed off some of the photos in order to give them to the kids when I returned. So while the others were visiting the manioc plantation I meandered off into the village, showed some of the photos to someone and off we went to find the various families where the kids in the photos lived. Needless to say they were surprised to get the photos! And when I took out the camera, many more kids showed up to have their photos taken. There was a baby and the girls took turns carrying the baby to pose for the camera.

Now it's 2018 and I once again return to Manaus and the Amazon. This year, the mission is clear: hand over 200 photos, divided into packages for each of the kids who had their picture taken on my previous visit. And again with Lo Peix we visited the community and I was off, scouring the town with one of the guys to find each and every family and hand them their photos. 

Talking with Mario, the tribal leader (that sounds kind of primitive, he is the de-facto mayor of the village) he mentioned that many people have come to take photos, including one photo-journalist who took many many photos with the promise to return and show the results to the community. Unfortunately, he never did. Mario expressed his gratitude for the photos and seemed genuinely happy to see that the kids got them.

We as travelers and tourists take for granted that people in the exotic places we visit will be happy to be in our vacation or travel photos. Imagine how it must feel to have all these strange people in strange clothing speaking a strange language traipse through your town and point cameras at you. I've seen people's faces light up when you simply share with them the photo you just took, after asking their permission. This simple act of making them part of your experience by turning the camera around and showing them the preview, is so much better than simply shooting and leaving with a smile and a wave. That gets old for the subject pretty quickly, I am guessing. Now imagine you actually get photos of yourself, either sent to you or in person. How cool would that be? Like having your own personal paparazzi.