Sertão is a tinder-dry, blisteringly hot region in the north-eastern hinterlands of Brazil. The inhabitants, the Sertanejos, regard the land as their church. Some even believe that Jesus is buried there. Originally the Sertanejos were religious dissidents who from the 17th to the early 20th century hid out in this remote corner of Brazil. Since that time they have undertaken pilgrimages through the inhospitable region to atone for their sins. Salvation is conceived primarily in the form of rain, which may not fall in the Sertão for three years on end. Thus religion and climate have become inseparably connected.

Christian Cravo (b. 1974, Brazil) grew up in Denmark, the son of a Brazilian father and Danish mother. At the age of 22 he began his career as a photographer in Brazil. Irredentos (The irredeemable) was his first book.