La Vida Loca

El Salvador: a country still living in the shadow of a brutal civil war. Poverty. Corruption. Political Instability. In recent years, this struggling nation’s problems have been compounded by a growing, increasingly brutal gang culture. In Central America, they are called "Maras", these groups of youngsters who have modelled themselves on Los Angeles youth gangs. They are extremely violent and are propagating terror in El Salvador and elsewhere.

Over the course of a year, acclaimed photographer and documentarian Christian Poveda turned his camera on one neighbourhood “Clica” (chapter) of the Mara 18, one of the largest and most infamous gangs in El Salvador. Tracing the daily lives – criminal exploits, murders, funerals, prison sentences, attempts at rehabilitation – of a handful of Mara 18 members, LA VIDA LOCA is part documentary, part war correspondent report, and part social commentary, a white-knuckle, fly-on-the-wall look at a world rarely seen by outsiders.