Diniz tells the life story of his friend - photographer Mauricio Hora - through almost abstracted black and white artwork on black pages. The dramatic artwork, reminiscent of wood cuts, forces you to concentrate on the panels and their story.
And the story is of Hora's life from childhood to adulthood in one of the oldest favelas (shanty-towns) climbing Providence Hill in Rio de Janeiro. Telling Hora's story also charts the street life changes in the favela over the last part of the 20th century. With poverty a given and police raids a constant, life grows more violent as the community alters from old-time "gangster values" of looking after your own community to gun and drug fueled anarchy. Hora's tragic family life and his own struggle to become a photographer and to document his own favela surroundings is absorbing. The book includes some of Hora's photos.
I enjoyed this book and its artwork - which tells an inspiring story of another kind of hero. ( )