Tariq Zaidi is a British photographer who has spent three years between 2018 and 2020 studying and documenting the savagely violent gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and others operating in El Salvador.
For his project Skin Deep, photographer Steven Burton shot portraits of current and former gang members and then used the power of Photoshop to reveal what they would look like without their face and body tattoos. This 4-minute video shows the reactions of the subjects seeing their 'shopped portraits for the first time.
I’m a big fan of the portrait. It’s even better when the portrait is about more than the photographer’s skill, but about the life, challenges, and successes of the subject. “Skin Deep” by Steven Burton is one such project that caught my eye.
Ever since I photographed basketball in Rwanda, I have been fascinated and almost obsessed with ways sport and fitness can improve culture and society. In particular, my fascination has revolved around impoverished regions. Last June, in Rwanda, where genocide, poverty, and disease devastated the small country and, a few months ago, in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.