Colours of a culture

Series of portraits of Pedro Negros at the feast of St. Nicholas in Holambra, a small Dutch colony in the countryside of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Pedro Negro is an intriguing character of this old Dutch celebration that takes place annually in December. Playmates with their black-painted faces, black gloves, and clown-like colored clothes, have the role of catching children's attention for misbehavior and run around the city chasing children with a straw wand knocking on the children's butt and handing out candies. Many people are against the character arguing of being a racist symbol and not others. The portraits seek to bring questions about the identity of this contradictory character.