Crackland by Carlos Cazalis

Crackland

Contemporary Issues, first prize stories

11/7/2008

Street cleaners spray the area beneath an overpass with water in an attempt to dissuade people from sleeping there. Over 10,000 people in the metropolis São Paulo are homeless. The city authorities maintain 35 shelters for overnight stays, with a total capacity for 8,000 people, but many of those who sleep on the streets resist the rules and social conventions enforced in these hostels.

Commissioned by: Corbis

Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Photo Credit: Carlos Cazalis

Since 1994, Carlos Cazalis has been using documentary images to expand the public’s awareness on social, economic and political issues around the world. From 1994-96 he worked for the local paper El Economista in Mexico and then with AFP until 1999. After completing an MFA at Parsons in New York City, he went freelance in 2001 taking international assignments in Venezuela, the Ukraine, Haiti and moved to Brazil in 2006. Since then he has embarked on a long-term project entitled ‘The Urban Meta’, focusing on the sustainability of mega cities and the human psyche within term covering habitat issues in Sao Paulo, Brazil, urban segregation in Osaka, Japan, environmental degradation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the urban psyche of Tehran and the fouls of poor water distribution in Mexico City, Mexico. In 2011 he moved on to Lagos, Nigeria to focus on its over-population problems and then to the urban serendipity of Cairo. In 2010 he made his first film, Year Zero, built entirely with still images on post Earthquake Haiti spanning 18 months of documentation. On a personal note due to a family history in the performance art, for over ten years he has been documented bullfighting in the Americas and Europe.

Cazali’s work has been published by leading magazines worldwide including Foto 8, the Guardian Weeken, Le Figaro, Le Monde and Polka magazine where he has exhibited twice since its nception, L’Espresso, Walrus magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine and Asahi magazine in Japan. His urban work has formed part of the United Nations UN-Habitat Program, and has been exhibited in Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Holland, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United Stated in leading photo festivals such as Visa Pour L’Imgae, CONTACT, Foto Septiembre and Noorderlicht.

He has given workshops and lectures on documentary photography in Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Sevilla, Dhaka, New York and Toronto.