Residents of Largo do Tanque, some pictured here in February 2013, undergo forced evictions and the demolition of their homes in Rio de Janeiro's West Zone, being cleared to make room for the Transcarioca Highway, which will eventually be built to accommodate the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Residents of Largo do Tanque, some pictured here in February 2013, undergo forced evictions and the demolition of their homes in Rio de Janeiro's West Zone, being cleared to make room for the Transcarioca Highway, which will eventually be built to accommodate the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Photograph by Lianne Milton

Musings: Eviction in Rio’s Favelas

When photographer Lianne Milton heard about the evictions happening in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, she immediately knew that she needed to document the process. She is a documentarian at heart, having explored other socially complex situations such as violence in Guatemala and water issues in Cambodia. Milton says that the evictions happen fairly rapidly, and few people have been able to capture them in progress. For her, this photo essay depicting the community of Largo do Tanque in Rio’s West Zone “documents one day in the life of an eviction to show how fleeting a home can be.”

Brazil’s favelas are sometimes seen as insignificant squatter communities because they began without government involvement and evolved organically. Milton says that favelas “are

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