Sons & Daughters

Description

Sons and Daughters is a 40 page photo book that explores social stressors in Brazil which impact trafficking there. It combines research,  transcribed interviews, personal stories, and images to illustrate the backdrop of a beautiful country who currently ranks second in the world for their numbers in the sex trade.  The photos in this book span a one-year portion of Shores journey in Brazil, highlighting the cities of Recife, Goiânia  Curitiba, and Sao Paulo. They are a small representation of hundreds of late night and early morning hours on the street spent building relationships with women in prostitution and families in the slums to learn what life is truly like for them.  As overwhelming as the trafficking situation may seem, each portrait here simply features children, or adults who, not so long ago, were children themselves making a way amidst brutal obstacles. Each one of them is someone’s son or daughter. People see what they want to see, and they perceive the incoming information through personal filters. The format of this book was meant to mirror that process. Shot in the vein of street photography, these images can be appreciated solely for their aesthetic value, however right below the surface another reality unfolds.  Really looking changes us. It re-arranges our hearts and creates room for response.

Sons and Daughters breaks down the issues which feed the sex trade in Brazil – legal, cultural, familial, and socio-economic. It follows the process of escape from slavery, through recruitment, to rescue and restoration, using images to make the journey a personal one.