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In the central square of Mexico City, “El Zocalo,” I was approached by a group of punks and skinheads selling a leftist newspaper. They told me to pay what I can, so I did and threw in a gracious tip. I asked if I could stick around and take some photos. After we spent the day breaking down our language barrier and becoming friends, “my punks” invited me back to their home far in the outskirts of the city.

For the next six months we regularly met up to go on adventures around the city; to ska and hardcore shows, parties in Neza, political protests, and El Chopo (A congregation of subcultures each Saturday in the north of the city.) Although it was a relationship that began as documentary photography, the experience became much more immersive than that.

The project is cited and featured in Daniel Hernandez’ book, Down and Delirious in Mexico City published by Simon and Schuster.

It was also featured in Issue 17 of Chief Magazine:

In a country that teeters between the first and third world, these kids are often the lowest of the low. They are often the children of indigenous transplants to the sprawling megalopolis and live in the furthest toxic shanty towns. Through some chance they took on the appropriated identity and culture that is ‘punk.’ It’s a scene that exists in fragmented but tight-knit families who won’t hesitate to fight each other or hurl a brick at the cops. They were some of the rowdiest and most destructive people I’d ever met, and I could tell that they didn’t have much to hope for. Despite that, my heart was warmed by their kindness to me, their families and loved ones. It was refreshing to experience punk without the familiar pretensions of class and race that I know in the USA.