Marcin Szczepanski

This photo essay aims to capture the relationship between the members of a traditional river community of Barra do São Lorenço and the natural world in Pantanal, the largest tropical wetlands in the world. Pantanal, on the border between Brazil and Bolivia, is the largest tropical wetland in the world. It covers 77,000 sq miles, roughly one third of the size of France. The region is one of the most bio-diverse areas on the planet, with around 475 species of birds, 350 species of fish, 135 species of mammals, and around 80 reptile species. Pantanal relies on a delicate balance of seasonal flooding and clean water flowing through the marshes. Climate change and an increasingly volatile weather presents an existential threat to the wetlands. In 2020, one third of the Pantanal vegetation burned in massive fires, causing devastating loss of wildlife and damaging the livelihood of traditional local communities. Pantanal is inhabited by ‘Ribeirinhos’, People of the River. They are the descendents of local indifenious people, Brazilian settlers and poor residents of local municipalities who settled on the river banks, among the marshes. Barra do São Lorenço is one of the more remote villages in Pantanal. It takes local residents up to 30 hours down the river on a small cattle boat to get to the nearest city of Corumba. Life in Barra is precarious and unpredictable. Residents of the village eke out a living on a narrow strip of higher land (20-100 meters) between the river and the marshes. The river bank in the village constantly erodes due to waves caused by the wealthy fishermen’s speed boats. The river has already taken 2-3 meters of the dry land in the last 2-3 years. The water levels go up and down several meters, depending on the season. Residents' livelihood depends on the sale of fishing bait, mainly small crab (caranguejo) to the tourist fishermen who arrive on large boats and then fish the river in small speed boats. The sale of fish to the passing tourists is another, much smaller source of income. In the last decades several private nature reserves and a national park have been created in the area surrounding the village. Local, traditional fishermen have been forbidden entry into these areas. It dramatically limited fishing and wood collection opportunities for the local population. Pantanal’s ribeirinhos live immersed in nature. The river and marshes provide them with the type of livelihood that used to be more common on our planet but now it is limited to select, remote areas.

Over the years Detroit has become a synonym of urban decay, fallen American manufacturing, dead end to the American dream, murder and drug capital of the USA, you name it. Hustling to survive, many of the city and area residents struggle with low self esteem, drug addictions, poverty or lack of job perspectives. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Apostle Daryl Davis provides one such measure. In 2007 this former factory worker turned taxi driver opened a Triumph Prophetic Worship Glory and Deliverance Center in Detroit. During a five hour Thursday night service, Davis chases the devil away from human bodies. Those who are “delivered” from demonic possession, are to be healed from addictions or homosexuality, empowered to overcome life’s obstacles and free from any troubles that bother them. The center attracts people from Detroit and its suburbs whose troubles are so burdensome they feel their only hope lies in what amounts to magical intervention. Apostle Daryl Davis follows a typical path of deliverance churches. He interviews people seeking help to learn their problems. He then asks them to write down what specifically they would like to be delivered from. Prayers are said for those who choose to be delivered that particular night. Then the Apostle and senior church members directly address the demons they think might be within the victims. This usually causes violent retching, and buckets lined with plastic bags are supplied in case they vomit. Triumph Center's website notes, "It is a shame and a disgrace that so many Christians are going to psychologists and psychiatrists who don't even recognize that their symptoms are caused by demons."

Great Recession of 2008-2010 hit Detroit particularly hard. This is a visual representation of those times.

Working class Monroe is a small town between Detroit, MI and Toledo, OH. Its biggest claim to fame is being the headquarters of Lazy Boy Corporation. Lazy Boy no longer manufactures furniture here. It imports it from China. Two paper mills and a number of car factories (including Ford) used to operate in the area. They are all gone now. Jobs that are still available in the area are low paying and mostly in the service industry. In recent years, many of the residents turned to heroin and oxycontin as an alternative to the American dream.

Cowboys have ridden horses across the wetlands of Pantanal in Brazil for 200 years. An entire culture, economic system, art forms and lifestyle developed around the cattle herding craft of cowboys on the Pantanal cattle ranches. The work in the largest wetlands of the world is hard and dangerous, the marshes are full of snakes, deadly spiders, alligators and jaguars. The cows are semi wild and sometimes unpredictable, especially when defending their calves. This generation of cowboys may well be the last one to roam the endless wetlands of what once was an inland sea. It has become increasingly difficult for ranch owners to find qualified cowboys to work and live on the ranches for months at a time. Many families have moved away from the farms and into nearby cities. The natural passage of the cowboy skills from one rural generation to another has been severely strained if not broken. Soon, the Pantanal cowboys will take their last ride into the sunset.

"Football is a Religion," a longtime University of Michigan football announcer Bob Ufer used to say. "And Saturday is the Holy Day of Obligation." The story aims to capture that quasi-religious character of college football, its meaning, emotions and a sometimes-ugly-underbelly.

A selection of my favorite images.

In this low-lying, coastal nation inundated by flood after flood, a rural exodus to the cities is reshaping life everywhere. Often referred to as “ground zero for climate change,” Bangladesh ranked sixth on the 2018 Global Climate Risk Index, and for many Bangladeshis, particularly the rural communities in low-lying coastal areas, those risks are already unmanageable. Riverbank erosion displaces 50,000 to 200,000 people here each year. Thousands more flee every time a major cyclone hits the coast. The most recent came in the midst of the Rohingya refugee crisis last May, and there were at least 12 others dating back to 1965. Not only do the intensifying storms destroy homes and livelihoods, but they also contribute to higher water and soil salinity. This saltwater incursion leaves millions with little to drink or eat.

This is a selection of photos I took while on staff at the University of Michigan College of Engineering in Ann Arbor.

Recent business and marketing photography in Ann Arbor.