Given the unforgiving August heat, most people were keeping to the shade of the trees in a nearby plaza. These boys, however, were playing football with a foam buoy. Juan Carlos Castañeda had sought out shade, too, and a bottle of water, having wrapped filming for the day. He was in Cité Soleil, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to shoot a short film on the community and its leaders.
“The kids in the picture were only 12, and they live in Haiti’s poorest and most dangerous neighbourhood. None of them can afford proper shoes or a ball to play with – they’re not even sure when they’ll get their next meal,” Castañeda says. “However, when they discovered this yellow buoy, they became Messi, scoring a goal in the World Cup and, just for a second, leaving the heaviness of their lives behind.”
