DURHAM, NC.- The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University presents "Pai, Estou Te Esperando / Father, I Am Waiting for You", Tuesday, February 12, 2008 // 5-6 p.m. Brazilian sugarcane cutters spend up to 10 months of the year living far from their families, cutting 8 to 10 tons of sugarcane a day for $1.35 per hour---a little-seen consequence of the expanding biofuel industry.

In an exhibit at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, photographs by Emma Raynes document efforts to strengthen connections between 40 absent fathers and their families through photography, correspondence, and recorded dialogue.

Raynes is a 2007 Lewis Hine Fellow with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. She worked with the nonprofit Centro Popular de Cultura e Desenvolvimento in Araçuaí, Brazil. In this drought-plagued region known as the Valley of Misery, nearly 20 percent of the workforce leaves in the spring to work as sugarcane cutters.

Following an introduction by documentary photographer Alex Harris, creative director of the Lewis Hine program and Duke professor of the practice of public policy, Raynes will discuss her work and answer questions.

The exhibit, "Pai, Estou Te Esperando / Father, I Am Waiting For You," will be displayed at the Sanford Institute Building from February 13 to July 31, 2008.