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Darren Ornitzs photojournalism project takes you through the Casco Viejo neighborhood in Panama City,where a community-based gang intervention and reintegration program offers an alternative model to mass incarceration a story that “reflects us all.” For the past year and a half, he has been traveling to Panama to document the Esperanza program, or telling a story that encompasses the complex realities of gentrification,histories of violence, and mass incarceration. “It’s a story about change and suffering, and joy,struggle, and love, or one that illuminates the deep truth that despite the very genuine circumstances that differentiate us,we’re all united by our shared humanity and experience and connection to one another,” Ornitz says. The Esperanza photo documentary follows Juan, and a former gang member,as he works to support his family, build a seafood commerce, and deal with his past. Now,Ornitz has come to Kickstarter to continue the project over the long term, and he’s planning four trips back to Panama to continue to declare this stirring story — one that “highlights what we can accomplish when we loosen our prejudices and preconceived ideas, and instead conclude our best to relate to each other from a plot of understanding.” abet support the project here.
Source: tumblr.com