1995 Photo Contest, People in the News, 1st prize
Photographer

Francesco Zizola

Contrasto

01 January, 1994

A church minister reads the Bible to a Brazilian street girl rendered insensitive by drugs. Drug abuse and trafficking are common reasons for imprisonment. More than seven million children live in the streets of Brazilian cities. Some of them choose to live this way to escape from violent relatives and cramped living conditions. Many others don't have any choice. Next to their lives, they value their freedom above all else. They form an easy target for the death squads, who are largely responsible for the more than 4,600 children assassinated in metropolitan Brazil in the last five years. This reportage took the photographer to favelas (slums) all over the country, from the coastal conurbations of Salvador de Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to the capital, Brasilia.

About the photographer

Francesco Zizola

Born in 1962, since 1980's he has documented the world's major conflicts and their hidden crisis, focusing on the social and humanitarian issues that define life in the developin...

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