A girl plays with soap bubbles outside her hut in a Quilombo near Cachoeira, Brazil. A Quilombo was a remote settlement originally founded as a refuge for runaway slaves and their descendants.
Bosco draws inside a mine in Chapada Diamantina –where his acenstors worked collecting diamonds– how the river ran through the mine, and how work was organized when the mine was in operation back in the 16th century.
Tainara peels cashews while her father Antonio Paolo, and her brother Miguel, watch television inside their house in Cachoeira, Brazil. Tainara's family has been supported by her mother and sisters who work harvesting nuts. Her father does not contribute to the household economy.
Sixto wakes up his children Dinei and Rodrigo early in the morning because their room was flooded at night due to a storm. They live in an abandoned, 3 floor over-crowded factory, one of the many buildings of Salvador's Homeless Workers Movement. Sixto is a single father who is loving and caring when sober, and unfortunately not when drunk.
Lucas, 20, and his sister Laisa, poses for a portrait at their home in Salvador. Lucas is a young gay man who ran away from violent parents, and now takes care of his sister.
Joelma poses for a portrait in her home in Salvador de Bahia. She was left an orphan at an early age, and suffered from different addictions. Today, she is pregnant and is trying to stay clean.
Two siblings play at home in Andarai next to an image of Yemnjá, the queen of the ocean. In Candomble, Yemanjá is one of the seven Orixás. She is a patron spirit of fishermen and shipwreck survivors. The feminine principle of creation and the spirit of the moonlight.
Eyd Elle 6, combs her mothers hair Crisleia, 22, in a "Terreiro" –a house where rituals and dances are perform– dedicated to different deities in to Yoruba religion.
A woman honors Yemanajá very early in the morning. On her day hundreds of people, all dressed in white, gather by the seaside to make her offerings –flowers, perfume, jewelry, pastries– that are put into the sea asking for protection and a good year of fishing.
Topics
Abandonment, Children, Community, Discrimination, Documentary, Domestic Violence, Education, Faith, Family, Fine Art, Health/Healing, Hope, Human Rights, Latin America, Minority, Photography, Photojournalism, Portraiture, Poverty, Religion, Still life, Street, Travel, Youth
Violent acts, such as those experienced in war or abuse, have a huge impact on people's mental health. Research indicates that trauma experienced by mothers is encoded into DNA and passed on to subsequent generations. This shapes the memories in a cognitive and behavioral way. "Halo" is an exploration of generational trauma as a result of a long history of violent experiences that started with slavery in the state of Bahia in Brazil. The project explores the manifestations of trauma through intimacy in the interpersonal relationship of slaves descendants, and how the vestiges intersect with the current environment. Today it is still necessary to fight important issues such as income gap, education and the social perpetration of racial stereotypes.
