Mario Macilau

(Mozambican, circa 1984)

Nelson Mandlate; Untitled (The Price of Cement); Untitled (Single Sense) 58 x 87cm (22 13/16 x 34 1/4in). each.

Footnotes

In 2017, Mario Macilau received the LensCulture Exposure Award. In a subsequent interview, he described the motivation behind his Growing in Darkness series:

"Some years ago, I started working with street children in Mozambique, spending time with them in order to gain a deeper understanding of their reality. My aim was to go where everyone advised me not to go. I was determined to reach the sites that seemed to frighten so many. I entered their private spaces, the bridges and abandoned buildings where they live, sleep, and camp. These places were very dark, damp and dangerous. In these makeshift living spaces, there are no bathrooms, light, water, or any other form of domestic support.

Photography can put up a mental and emotional fence between you and your subject. Holding a camera can install a divide between human hearts, because people often think that photographers are entering their houses and taking photographs of their secrets and privacy without actually getting to know them.

Instead, I photographed with my mind. I frequented their lodgings without my camera, spending as many moments as my time allowed with the children. Gradually, a mutual trust was built. After learning each other's values, a sense of safety was established between us...It is from this position—that of a friend—that I managed to capture their existence: the adversity of their environments, the endurance of their young but possibly condemned bodies, and the resilience that, daily, defies the inhumanity of their hardships."