TITLE: The true story of Gina

Gina is a woman who makes her living by night. Every day she leaves her house in the late afternoon to sell her body in the dimly lit alleys of the suburb where she lives. She doesn't do it because she likes it or wants to, she was simply forced into it by a life of which she has almost no good memories or moments that made her happy.
Tired of collecting disillusions and mismatches with men who sought nothing more than to use her, she gave up fighting against a destiny that seemed determined to grant her only the same days as the ones she was trying to forget. She quickly plunged into a downward spiral that led her permanently into the nightlife and prostitution.
The line between the life at night and the world of drugs is very faint and Gina crosses it very early. Seductive and always nurturing, the drug was always available to give her the comfort she sought in times when discouragement or despair spoke louder.
When she returns home at dawn, the provocative and defiant Gina turns into a different person. Now she is just a fragile and sensitive woman living alone in a rented room with a zinc-plate roof in an obscure quarter of the city.
A life spent entirely at night has taken Gina further and further away from her son, forcing her to leave him with his mother during the week. This is another sorrow she has to live with, and she tries to regain the lost time on Sundays, the only day she can be with her son all day and when she can finally become a mother again.

AUTHOR: João Coelho (Portugal)

I was born in Angola, but the war of independence in that country forced my family to restart their lives in Portugal in the mid-70s, where I graduated in Law, developed an important part of my professional career in law and banking, and where I took my first steps into the world of photography. In 2007, responding to a strong call from my homeland, I returned to Angola where I am still living and working on auditing and consulting projects focused on the modernization and institutional development of the public sector. The demands of my professional activity and perhaps some fear of photographing in an unsafe environment have led me, unfortunately, to turn my back to photography for quite some time. The rediscovery of that passion as I realized the variety of motives that surrounded me and the gradual release of the fears that blocked me was an extremely enriching and rewarding process. Today, whether telling stories through photography, doing curation in some groups and websites, or simply sharing experiences and achievements with a fantastic community of colleagues and friends, photography is an essential dimension in my life as a form of personal fulfillment and inspiration. My photographic work has also had the merit of shaping my way of being, having radically transformed the way I position myself in the world and how I look at everything around me. Today, after having looked into the eyes of survival and resilience, I am a simpler person, more restrained in my aspirations, and I value more the little things and the small attitudes and gestures that can change the world