Baixo Estácio – AC Junior

“Baixo Estácio makes my heart sing with rage at the cowardice I saw, and makes me recognize, as in the samba with João de Aquino, that I came from Maia Lacerda and that shit is part of me. (…) That’s why AC Junior’s photos seem like mirages: Estácio is a desert that its worshipers transform into colorful oases – a part of the city full of glittering jewels and diamond-like rivers that, if you look closely, are rags of serpentine collected by a child in the gutter.” – Aldir Blanc

19 years ago AC Junior documented the neighborhood of Estácio, where the first samba school was born, created by Ismael Silva. The Baixo Estácio, located a few blocks next to the Sambódromo, is what remains of the old Praça Onze, with architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The book is a look at a Rio de Janeiro forgotten about its own roots. A nocturnal look in which color and time establish a relationship with the human being and his disappearance.