New Images from João Pina's Documentation of Violence in Rio

Last February I posted some truly amazing and heartbreaking pictures from João Pina, about the violence that plagues Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An average of 18 people a day are killed by gunfire in the city.

More from Pina’s project statement:

A mix of indiscriminate force used by the local police, a gigantic, drug trafficking market and illegal gambling, along with huge corruption levels on the police are the raw ingredients for one of the biggest security problems of the globe.

About 3 million live on the so-called “favelas”, the slums located on the hilltops of the city. The police operate on a daily basis in most of the 800 favelas, and to try to arrest and kill local drug dealers, seize guns and drugs, but in the end of the day the civilians who live in the middle of this urban chaos are usually the victims of crossfire, police repression, and the “movimento” (local name for the drug trafficking business).

I decided to start documenting this reality because I was driven into a curiosity of what took the city to get into this extreme of violence that happens today. I had the chance to be on the side of different police units while doing their work inside the slums, I had also the opportunity to follow and document the side of young men with an average age of 18, being the bosses of communities just because they are drug traffickers in a territory where the Brazilian state simply doesn’t exist, so sometimes they replace it, providing the neighbors with food and medicine.

This morning Pina sent an email announcing additions to the project, and they are incredible. Have a look.

See more from the unbelievably talented João Pina.