Fissura
The neighborhood's origin.
In the heart of São Paulo, Brazil, lies a once-luxurious neighborhood that has fallen into decay. After decades of neglect, its elegant mansions were repurposed as brothels and drug dens, and its streets became home to the world’s largest street drugs market, the infamous Crackland.
For nearly three years, I documented the people and the daily life of this area until its eventual closure through demolition. Now, with almost 3,000 crack-cocaine users displaced and roaming the streets of downtown São Paulo, searching for a new place to establish the “new Crackland,” this project stands as a visual record of a forgotten area and its inhabitants who have been affected by the worst crack-cocaine epidemic in the world.
This project was recently published as a book in 2020, and its powerful imagery has garnered recognition in several festivals and photographic magazines. A limited number of copies are still available, and can be purchased by visiting here.