Blink’s Kyla Woods spoke with photographer Tomás Ayuso, winner of Festival Errante’s Portfolio Review Prize and the recipient of an award sponsored by National Geographic, about the importance of photographing youth in Honduras, the challenges that he faced and solutions that could help to deter susceptible youth from joining gangs.

KW: How long have you been documenting youth in Honduras?

TA: Since 2009, I have witnessed the violence escalate. Around 2014, when the violence in the cities was at its worst, the foreign coverage given as to why Honduras had plunged into such butchery was, in my opinion, superficial at best. At worst, it didn’t appear that people seemed to care that this was happening.

Why was this happening in Honduras? Why was it mostly the youth dying? I embedded myself in the gangs to answer these questions. What I discovered was that most of the people being killed were minors caught in the crossfire or fighting between themselves. And many who weren’t killed, were fleeing the country to save their lives –– most headed towards the United States.

I then realized that the right to grow old in Honduras had eroded into nothing, and that the younger generations were going to do whatever it took to survive these simultaneous crises ravaging the country.