2017 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 3rd prize

Copacabana Palace

Photographer

Peter Bauza

15 August, 2015

Domingo (foreground) came to Brazil from Angola in search of a better life, and lives with Lourdes (cooking) and her five children in one of the occupied buildings.

Millions of people in Brazil live without secure housing. Government-backed social housing schemes, aimed at reducing an estimated shortage of 5.24 million homes in Brazil, have had limited impact. Some 300 families live in a neighborhood in Campo Grande, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro, squatting in derelict apartment blocks: the remnants of a failed middle-class housing development of 30 years ago. Residents call the quarter ‘Jambalaya’, after a TV show, or sometimes ‘Copacabana Palace’ after a luxury hotel. Like many favelas and slums across the country, the quarter lacks basic infrastructure and living conditions are poor.

About the photographer

Peter Bauza

After graduating in international commerce, he first pursued a career for an international company, which took him to several countries where he also developed his visual languag...

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/60
Focal length
28.0 mm
F-Stop
4.0
ISO
800
Camera
Leica M

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