Chavos

• Photographer
  Tom King, United Kingdom
• Studio
  Tom King
• Website
  http://www.tomdking.co.uk

This series of images was taken in the City of Monterrey in the northeast of Mexico. The
young men in these photographs all come from neighbourhoods that in recent years have been
badly affected by warring drug cartels and the resulting violence. All of the young men in
these photos have lost friends and/or family members to that violence. The Mexican
government’s official statistics (INEGI) show that almost 35% of those killed in Mexico
are males aged from 15 to 29. This is the largest percentage for any single age group.
Current estimates put the country’s total number of drug related homicides in excess of
100,000 since 2007. Many young Mexicans, like those photographed here, will now lead the
rest of their lives coping with the impact and the memory of this violence. These
portraits come after living and working in the north of Mexico for over three years.