The Mata Atlântica: Erosion of a World — An Investigation into a Biome at Risk

Mata Atlântica: An Investigation into a Biome at Risk

Manuel Besse, after several months in the field throughout 2025, you have structured a four-year action plan regarding the Mata Atlântica with Posto 5 Agency. Beyond a mere environmental assessment, your approach operates as a form of archaeology of the present. What is the actual state of this biome today?

Mapping the Extreme Fragmentation of the Mata Atlântica

Manuel Besse: First, we must shatter the myth of an impenetrable forest. In 2025, during my missions from June through November, the reality was one of extreme fragmentation. We are no longer dealing with a forest continuum, but a constellation of isolated remnants. Deforestation is saturating the landscape with industrial agricultural infrastructure that fractures biological corridors. Political shifts have not halted this extractive dynamic: my work with Posto 5 Agency is precisely to map this erosion before it becomes irreversible.

Social Stratification and the Land Struggle in Brazil

Your approach is ethnographic. How did you handle the encounters with the populations living on these threatened lands?

Manuel Besse: The field demands a multifaceted reading. I was confronted with a complex social stratification: on one side, indigenous communities striving to maintain an ancestral relationship with the territory; on the other, quilombola communities, whose land management is rooted in a historical resistance to land grabbing. The issues are systemic: land dispossession and institutional isolation. My role, via Posto 5 Agency, was to document the facts: the encroachment of intensive farming and the severance of access to community lands.

You have noted difficulties with the institutional sphere during your reconnaissance. What were the main obstacles?

Manuel Besse: The dissonance between official discourse and the reality on the ground is striking. Institutions, anchored in a disconnected technocracy, struggle to integrate the long-term temporal scale of an investigation like the one conducted by Posto 5 Agency. There is a mutual distrust. We had to establish a granular map of stakeholders: understanding who truly holds power over the land and how land conflicts are articulated. This was not a mission of comfort; it was a work of local geopolitics.

Technically, how have you translated these stakes into your photographic work?

Manuel Besse: Through geometric rigor. Black and white allows us to lay bare the landscape's structure: the brutal geometry of cleared fields against the organized chaos of the remaining forest. Each frame is a measurement—the scale of a bulldozer against a tree. The objective of Posto 5 Agency is to extract raw data, to provide an archive that cannot be refuted.

For Phase 1, starting at the end of 2026, you are not working alone. Can you detail the operational dynamics?

Strategic Deployment with Flavio Sousa Cruz

Manuel Besse: This project is the result of a profound synergy with Flavio Sousa Cruz. Flavio is a seasoned specialist of the Brazilian Northeast whose experience in large-scale national projects resonates perfectly with the DNA of Posto 5 Agency. For Phase 1, we have rationalized our deployment: Flavio will take the lead on operations in the Belo Horizonte basin and the coastal facade toward Recife, leveraging his institutional expertise. For my part, I will focus on inventorying the Mata Atlântica from Rio de Janeiro toward the southern coast.

Your commitment is massive. Yet, you are hitting a financial wall. How do you reconcile this confrontation?

Manuel Besse: With a necessary, ironic detachment. Great causes are often marketing slogans, but when it comes to funding independent, in-depth work, doors lock. Seeing certain organizations exhaust themselves in cosmetic battles while fundamental issues find no echo among institutions is edifying. Posto 5 Agency does not seek communication; it seeks proof. We fund our own rigor. If institutions are blind to the value of an archive, we know exactly what we are documenting.

About the Author

Manuel Besse is an independent documentary photographer and the founder of Posto 5 Agency, based in Rio de Janeiro. His work aligns with the great humanist tradition of the legendary photographic agencies that shaped the perspective of the 20th century. While his immersive commitment to forgotten causes places him in the lineage of Sebastião Salgado, Manuel Besse breaks away through a radically different aesthetic: where lyricism gives way to a form of clinical neutrality and implacable geometric rigor, his lens seeks the archive rather than celebration. Internationally acclaimed for the precision of his vision, Besse develops an exacting monochrome visual language, devoid of artifice, to document the

irreversible transformation of the Brazilian landscape.

https://www.posto5agency.com/

About Posto 5 Agency | À propos de Posto 5 Agency | Sobre a Posto 5 Agency

Posto 5 Agency is a premier documentary photography agency in Rio de Janeiro, specializing in immersive photojournalism across Brazil. Founded by Manuel Besse and featuring the expertise of Flávio Sousa Cruz, our agency provides high-end visual archives and documentary reportage for international media and institutions. From landscape investigation to territorial inventory, we offer a rigorous visual perspective on the Brazilian reality.

: Posto 5 Agency est une agence de photographie documentaire à Rio de Janeiro, spécialisée dans le reportage photo en immersion au Brésil. Fondée par Manuel Besse avec l'expertise de Flávio Sousa Cruz, notre agence produit des archives visuelles et des reportages photographiques pour les médias internationaux. De l'enquête sur le paysage à l'inventaire territorial, nous documentons la réalité brésilienne avec une rigueur d'expert.

: A Posto 5 Agency é uma agência de fotografia documental no Rio de Janeiro, especializada em fotojornalismo imersivo no Brasil. Fundada por Manuel Besse e contando com a experiência de Flávio Sousa Cruz, nossa agência produz arquivos visuais e reportagens documentais para mídias internacionais. Desde investigações de paisagem até inventários territoriais, documentamos a realidade brasileira com rigor e excelência.