NORDESTE
While most commonly known in popular culture for beaches, carnival, samba and football, Brazilis one of the world’s most violent countries, recording a staggering 60 thousand homicides eachyear.In the last ten years the violence has shifted from the wealthy Southern Eastern states like Rio deJaneiro and Sao Paulo, to Brazil’s poorer North Eastern states, most of which have seenhomicides rates–usually gun deaths-rise by more than 100 per cent.The North East is where the Portuguese first arrivedand where African slaves were first put towork on sugar plantations. Today, most of the local economy is based on tourism.Analysts attribute the rise in violence in the region a culture of violence born through impunity,weak state institutions and centuries of savage inequality, exacerbated by drug traffickingnetworks which have expanded greatly throughout the North East region in recent years.Brazil is now the world’s seventh largest economy and as its wealth has grown so has its appetitefor drugs. The country recently became the world’s second largest consumer of cocaine and thelargest consumer of crack
The same economic wave that lifted millions of Brazilians’ out of poverty-especially in the NorthEast–has also contributed to an increasein deadly drug violence as drug traffickers realized thepotential of developing markets and expanded heavily into the North East.The work aims to capture a diverse glimpse on Brazil’s violence phenomena, by combiningimages of tropical landscapes withcrime scenes, highlighting the deep contrast between pristinebeaches, luxury hotels and gated communities where rich Brazilians and tourists stay, with thegritty urban periphery where most of the murders happen.