LOCATION: Outdoor exhibition at Kasernplan MAP
Three thousand shoeshiners go out into the streets of La Paz and El Alto suburbs each day in search of clients. They are of all ages, and in recent years have become a social phenomenon in the Bolivian capital. What characterizes this tribe is their use of ski masks so they will not be recognized by those around them. In their neighbourhoods or schools, even within their own families, no one knows that they work as shoeshiners.
The mask is their strongest identity: it makes them invisible while at the same time unites them. This collective anonymity makes them tougher when facing the rest of society and is their resistance against the exclusion and discrimination they suffer because of their work.
For three years, Federico Estol collaborated with sixty shoeshiners associated with the shoeshiners’ newspaper “Hormigón Armado”. Together they planned the scenes during a series of workshops, becoming both producers and protagonists of a photo essay to fight against social stigma.
Federico Estol is an Uruguayan photographer and artivist. Currently working as a visual storyteller in Latin America, his long-term projects focus on the relationship between cultural identity, inequality and social justice. In addition, he is the artistic director of the international festival SAN JOSÉ FOTO and editor of photobooks at El Ministerio Ediciones.
