LOSOLMO GYM

Losolmo gym is in Cuba's second city of Santiago. The boys here train barefoot, dressed in little more than rags. The equipment is decrepit. The boxing ring floor is unevenly patched together, the ropes are frayed and there is barely enough equipment to go round and it has produced four olympic champions. Each of these impoverished Cuban boys carries the dream of becoming a champion. I think it is not for the money, not even for the fame, but for these boys to be a boxer is the noble and heroic pinnacle of human aspiration.

Daisuke Ito was born in 1976 in Japan. He had learned photography for two years at IDEP in Bacelona, Spain. He had wandered around Central and South America for two years. He started his career as a photographer in 2005 in slum named Chapéu Mangueira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He works in editorial and advertising of Brazil and Japan after his return to Japan in 2016.