For three centuries Brazil’s devout Sertanejos (Backlanders) have relied on pilgrimages to sacred sites deep in this inhospitable land to expiate their sins. To acquire the amulets, figures of saints and religious icons that will protect them until the next gathering.

This place is called "house of the miracles"; one can find images, letters or even cancerous parts of the body that have been taken out during medical surgery. Every miracle, small or large is posted here as proof of the backlander's belief in Christianity.

Redemption here comes in the form of life-giving rain, which must fall from Heaven, and it’s primarily with prayers for which that these journeys continue. So dry is the Sertão that places have been known to go for more than three years at a time without a single drop of rain. Here, the climate and the people’s religious fervor are closely linked.
Men fix a cross that has been brought along as a religious penitence. In the background the infinity of the Brazilian landscape. Bom Jesus da Lapa / Bahia state.