Five-year-old Nino stares solemnly at the camera from behind an oversize bow tie. His baggy overalls, cut from the same yellow, pink, and green patterned cloth, are garish against the red canvas of the tent behind him.
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The photographer, Chicagoan Tone Stockenstrom, has spent the last three summers training kids at the Picolino Circus in Salvador, Brazil, in photography. The 15-year-old circus was founded to teach Salvador’s orphans and street children new skills and provide them with a source of income and a sense of community. Most of the acrobats and entertainers are between 12 and 25, but an exception was made for Nino, who was adopted by one of the trainers, a woman named Neida, as a baby. “He’s kind of an icon of the circus,” says Stockenstrom.
“I was struck by the violence against youth right now all over the world,” says Stockenstrom, referring to the apparent massacre of gang-affiliated teenagers by guards in a Honduran prison in April. “Our youth are our most vulnerable and powerful group. They need access to art so they can express their beautiful and oftentimes painful life experiences.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Trond Stockenstrom.
