Jesus, Make up and Football by Belgian photographer Frederik Buyckx is all about the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. His photographs provide a haunting glimpse into the lives of the favela residents and what matters to the most: Jesus, make up and football.
Buyckx rented a pied-à-terre for a few months in a favela and shared the inhabitants’ daily vicissitudes. A fifth of Rio’s six million inhabitants live in favelas: self-built, improvised populous neighbourhoods in which life can be rough. With the World Cup coming to Rio in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, the city is determined to show itself to its best advantage. The government is using the opportunity to clean up the slums and flush out the drug gangs.
The book is published by Lannoo (Belgium) and won several awards, including a World Press Photo Award in 2013. In 2017 Frederik was named ‘Photographer of the Year’ at the Sony World Photography Awards. His work has been published in National Geographic Magazine (NL), The New York Times Newspaper/Style Magazine (USA), The Sunday Times Magazine(UK), CNN Photo Blog (USA) and De Standaard (BE) among others.