Old Boy

In many countries around the world, I have encountered children who looked to me like adults in children’s bodies. Unlike their peers, they lack childlike curiosity, playfulness and joie de vivre. In the Peruvian city of Cusco, in front of a shoe store, I spotted a little boy who struck me as particularly serious, detached, and tired. In my imagination, he had been working hard all morning and was now taking a break. Was he one of the many children of Peru who work at an early age and thereby miss an important part of their childhood?

Cuzco (Peru), July 2017