Nataly and Soledad wait for a friend that went to buy some cocaine and pasta base (a very cheap and addictive drug made with cocaine left overs). It’s been a long time since he left and he, probably, won’t come back. The anxiety for smoking becomes unbearable. Nataly is sitting under a portrait of her grandmother. She died a few months ago, which increased her addiction.

ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT

How many times can a person face death in their lives?

Sense it. Feel it. Smell it. Maybe once? Twice? Four times?

The people captured in “Living Periferia” live with it every day of their lives. The violence, the drugs, the weapons, the lost bullets, which take dozens of lives every year… The fights, the battles with the police. Some barely escape. Others fall in the street law and to save them from oblivion their friends and family draw enormous pictures of them on the walls of the shantytown. It’s a posthumous tribute to their courage, their way to remember them as local heroes.

Nataly and Javiera after smoking some pasta base (a very cheap and addictive drug made with cocaine left overs) pass for a depressive status. They lock in dark rooms and avoid speaking with other people A group of young men play with a weapon while they smoke”pasta base”( a very cheap and addictive drug made with cocaine left overs) A boy walks playing through a dark passage in Puente Alto. It’s common to see little kids alone in these vulnerable shantytowns in Santiago Manuel Gutiérrez was only 19 when he was killed by a cop in Santiago during a confrontation between police and unknows. They claimed it was a lost bullet. The murderer was absolved of every responsibility in the secret militar trial. A little girl looks the daily game with fire guns of some relatives. In these sectors, kids coexist with all kind of weapons. Nataly and Diandra kiss. A very important amount of young women in Santiago’s shantytowns became lesbians, tired of men’s violence. The “femicides” (murder of a woman resulting from gender violence) happen every week, so they rather look for shelter with female couples. A group of children plays in what’s left of their neighborhood in Villa El Volcán (The Volcano shantytown). A kid plays with a dog’s carcass in the heart of his destroyed neighborhood. “Villa El Volcán” (The Volcano shantytown) is an icon of Chile’s social exclusion. Every winter the houses ended up flooded with the rain because of their deficient construction. Later, they discovered that the whole shantytown was b Shoes hang from electricity cables in the sector of Puente Alto. They are placed by gangs to mark their territory and show that in that place people have been assaulted A group of children plays with a ball in a land soccer field. This spot is surrounded by some of the most dangerous shantytowns in Santiago of Chile. One of them, The Volcano, is an icon of Chile’s social exclusion. Their bad constructed houses flooded every winter with the rain and later the neighbors discovered that that the whole shantytown was built over a former dump. Lots of people have became sick, because earth and water are polluted

This work dives in a forgotten world, where many times not even mailmen are allowed in. It’s a world that goes beyond poverty. Wide ghettos in the further corners of Santiago where the State has managed for years to dump what they would rather not see. What investments must never see. What rich people should better keep ignoring.

Chile is now one of the richest countries in South America. The government celebrates the 4.4% economical growth in the last year and everyone claps when they say the international crisis hasn’t reached yet. But no one looks at this face of Chile when they receive the applauses. Derelict that generates more derelict. Violence that generates more violence. The toughest and more efficient school of crime. A society inside the society whit their own codes and mechanics that result inconceivable for the rest of the world. The order inside the chaos, where only the one who yells louder, the one who hits harder or the one who shoots faster can emerge. Or survive.

These photos are a personal puzzle about fragmented social representations. The foreign eyes of someone that, of all the going round, ended up being a local. But who’s look reflects the beauty of an ugly and shocking world to the eyes of whom looks from across the street.

A group of youngsters play in a park with a fire gun. The young mother points to her baby’s father as a joke. The girl is a victim of gender violence A young couple kisses in the street. In private, the girl suffers from gender violencia A couple of friends play over a car used for drug dealing. They are in a depressive mood. It’s very common to see this kinds of scenes in pasta bases’s addicts A young man hopes to buy some drug in this dealer’s house 8 – Leslie es adicta a la pasta bese de cocaína , despúes de vender practicamente todas las cosas de valor de la casa de sus padres , debe recurrir a la prostitución para poder financiar su adiccion , tiene 23 años. 08-10-2011 , Santiago,Chile. A young woman gives some pasta base’s dosis (a very cheap and addictive drug made with cocaine left overs) Nataly smoking Pasta Base (a very cheap and addictive drug made with cocaine left overs) Nataly is addicted to Pasta Base, Cocaine and alcohol At dusk a young woman returns to her home in “18th Hill” shantytown. She walks fast for in the night the narrow streets turn really dangerous.

Bio

Alejandro Olivares (1981) is a Chilean photographer currently living in Santiago, Chile. He is the photo editor of The Clinic Magazine; correspondent for foreign agencies, several international agencies and photographer for “Felicidad” Design Agency in Chile. His work is divided between press coverage and documentary essay.

He has won multiple awards including; National Hall of Press Photo (Chile), Photo of the Year in the bicentenary version of the National Hall of Press Photo (Chile), Photo of the Year in Querétaro Photo Fest in Mexico, along with the second place in documentary essay in the same festival. He was nominated for the Rodrigo Rojas de Negri award in the years 2009, 2011, and 2012 and he was selected for the briefcase visionary PhotoEspaña 2011 in República Dominicana.

His work has been featured in exhibitions in Chile, Spain and the United States and has been published in several Chilean magazines and journals including “Qué Pasa”, “Joia”, “Pound”, “Guamá”, “Artishock” and “La Nación”. He has also published in foreign medias like “Soho” (Colombia), “Internazionale” (Italy), “Focus” (Italy), “10×15” (Spain), “Piel de Foto” (Spain).

He has been honorably mentioned in the Zoom-In Poverty Contest, from the Agence Xinhua, China.

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Alejandro Olivares