SOCIAL WORKER leads photojournalist Tyrone Turner through the slums of Recife, Brazil, into an abandoned building. There they find a gang of teenagers, teary-eyed, inhaling the fumes from noxious cement as if it were a sweet perfume.
THEY ARE GLUE KIDS, a subculture of child-addicts trying desperately to escape their impoverished existence, finding a bargain buzz in the vapors emanating from a dirty plastic bottle. |
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"FOR FIVE MONTHS I watched them," recalls Turner, "In front of me and the rest of the passing public, they drugged themselves, played, fought, caressed, kissed, and slept when the stupor became too much."
LIKE SO MANY modern photojournalists, Turner formed
a friendship with his subjects. He used his pictures to lobby
the glue manufacturers to change their formula, and while
he knows this will not solve the glue kids' deeper problems,
he hopes it will help. |
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