Positively Pernambuco – a story of hope in Brazil

Photographer Paulo Almeida has long been inspired by Pernambuco, the north-eastern state of Brazil in which he grew up. “What I saw and felt as a child are feelings I’ve tried to capture or recreate every time I’ve had the opportunity to photograph there,” says Almeida, who now lives in Paris. He was particularly taken with the quilombo of Mata de São José  – “quilombo” being the term for settlements made by escaped slaves, often many centuries ago. This one, lying between the cities of Orocó and Cabrobó, is a small settlement for a few hundred people; their small single-storey homes, sometimes painted pink or green, are based around a square with a church.

Model Carliane Paixão wears Hermès leather flannel jacket, £4,610, and wool pencil skirt, £1,950. Bottega Veneta leather croc-effect loafers, POA. Burberry leather B Buckle chain belt, £430. Falke cotton tights, £36. Socks, stylist’s own. The red flask she carries “is something all the farm workers carry here, and something you see in most homes in the region”, says photographer Paulo Almeida. “When you arrive or are invited into someone’s house, you’ll likely have coffee from one of those thermals”

Almeida’s original plans for this HTSI shoot changed, however, when he met community leader Maria Senhora Gomes dos Santos Gonçalves, the manager of the local school who is also a teacher, cordel literature writer and artist. She explained that the story of Mata de São José hasn’t always been a happy one. “For several centuries, and still today, there has been a struggle for black, rural and urban quilombola women,” says Gomes, “as well as Indigenous people, gypsies, riverine communities, shellfish gatherers, people from the periphery and the terreiros (Afro-Brazilian places of worship) and the MST (the Landless Workers’ Movement).” Structural racism, she continues, has often led “to intellectual erasures”. The politics of a “macho and patriarchal society have killed and continue to kill us women, our children and our youth”.

Gomes felt differently about working with Almeida. “I was already able to absorb the positive energies,” she says. She was moved that they asked the community how they would like to be represented, and respected certain sacred places on the land. In this shoot, the inhabitants wear some clothes that are beyond their means, but the visibility and dignity accorded to the locals was what ultimately mattered. “We were left convinced that it was not just a photographic moment, but rather a historical record of an enormous anti-racist project.”

Almeida says that Gomes and the people of the quilombo became the primary inspiration for this story. “They are very compelling individuals. They have so much to say, and sometimes are not heard. Gomes’ stories of her ancestors, what she hopes for the present and the future, left us all inspired the first evening we met her, sitting under a tree in front of her home as the sun went down.” Maria, meanwhile, quotes the quilombola poet Antônio Bispo dos Santos, also known as Nêgo Bispo, who died last year. “‘We are the beginning, the middle, and the beginning. Our trajectories move us. Our ancestry guides us.’”

Model Ed Correia wears Loewe cashmere and silk jacket, £3,250. Zegna wool trousers, €1,790. SS Daley silk Elliot scarf (worn as headscarf), £110 

Carliane wears Gucci wool formal blazer, £2,025. Ralph Lauren cotton poplin shirt, £179. The headpiece is a handmade tablecloth typically found in many homes in Orocó; visible around Carliane’s neck are leaves from the Pernambuco region 

School pupil Felipe Gabriel dos Santos Gonçalves (on left) wears Burberry stretch-wool trench coat, £2,090. Prada leather shoes, £870. Top (just seen), model’s own. School pupil James Leandro Rodrigues (on right) wears Dior wool twill jacket, £2,300, and matching shorts, £1,250. Jil Sander leather and rubber shoes, £1,390. Pantherella cashmere socks, £44

Teacher, writer and artist Maria Senhora Gomes dos Santos Gonçalves wears Quira textured wool tweed coat, £3,300

Carliane wears Jil Sander tailored wool jacket, £2,130. Top (underneath) and headscarf, both stylist’s own. The headscarf Carliane wears is the flag of Pernambuco; the ribbon around her waist is a lembrança do senhor do Bonfim ribbon, which is said to confer three wishes on the wearer once they break

Farmer José Kaique dos Santos Brito wears Prada wool suit jacket, £3,300, cotton Oxford shirt, £640, wool trousers, £1,290, and micro-faille tie, £220. Falke wool/cashmere socks, £24. Shoes and sunglasses, model’s own

Ed wears Polo Ralph Lauren cotton Iconic polo tops, £109 each, and cotton long-sleeve polo top (worn underneath), £119. Jacquemus cotton asymmetric trousers, €590. Traditional vaqueiro’s hat, stylist’s own. The ribbons Ed wears are used in a traditional dance typical of the area, while the water bottle is a reference to famous Brazilian bandit leader Lampião, who always carried water with him on his long journeys

Farmer José Inaldo Gomes dos Santos (on left) wears MM6 Maison Margiela twill coat with zip detail, €1,381, and jersey top, €460. José wears Bottega Veneta cotton Frise coat and cotton Frise shirt, both POA. Their orange faces “symbolise the orange beneath our feet”, says Almeida – a bright orange typical of the local roads

Ed wears Louis Vuitton embroidered wool cowboy jacket, £2,700, and tailored wool workwear trousers, £1,500. Burberry wool rollneck (just seen), £820. Emporio Armani leather Derby shoes, £990. Pantherella superfine cashmere socks, £77.50. Ed is also trailing traditional lembrança do senhor do Bonfim ribbons (see above)

Models, Carliane Paixão and Ed Correira, both at Joy Model Management. Casting, Jonathan Johnson. Make-up, Aurore Gibrien. Photographer’s assistants, Steven Pane, Danilo Andrade and Israel Carvalho. Stylist’s assistants, Dominik Radomski and Giovanna Piergallini. Location scout, Severo Filho. Production, Farago Projects. Special thanks to Maria José Gomes dos Santos, Maria Suely Gomes dos Santos and Maria Senhora Gomes dos Santos Gonçalves, and to Emmanuelle Atlan at Farago