Terra is a documentary photographic monograph by Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, featuring an introduction by Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago and poems by legendary Brazilian musician Chico Buarque. The work was published in 1997 as an artistic and political intervention intended to raise public awareness of the significance and activities of the MST (O Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) movement. The release of the monograph happened one year after widely publicized Eldorado do Carajás massacre, in which members of the movement were killed. The thesis first adresses the question of the socio-historical significance of land ownership in Brazil and presents MST as a mobilizing political actor. It then examines the conceptual structure of the photographic monograph, in which the first four sections »Gente da terra«, »Trabalhadores da terra«, »A força da vida«, »Migrações para as cidades« contextualize the situation of landless peasents in Brazil, while the final section »A luta pela terra« presents the struggle of the MST movement. This is followed by an analysis of Saramago's text, which is defined as literary essay, together with an interpretation of its allegorical significance, through which the text emphasises the necessity of collective political action. Finally, the thesis presents MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) as a form of Brazilian urban popular music with significant socio-political role and, in this context, analyzes Buarque's songs »Brejo da cruz«, »Assentamento« and »Levantados do chão«. Such an analysis of the monograph Terra provides insight into the complexity of the question of land in Brazil while simultaneously confronting us with the broader question of the land as a shared living space.
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