This project is born from the unlikely meeting of people very different from one another. Different in their paths, daily lives, and origins. Yet united by the same pulse: popular music that travels through towns and villages, recognized, lived, and shared.

More than preserving traditions, this work looks toward the present and the future. Because popular culture is not static memory — it is movement, transformation, and identity in the making, whether one likes it or not. Katembas represent this living manifestation.

The photographic project is still in development. For now, only a few working and study images are being revealed. The complete body of work will give rise to an exhibition scheduled to take place over the course of the coming year.

The final images in this selection belong to one of the most intense and dynamic members of the group. A body in constant dialogue with music — and with life — a presence of great plasticity and total commitment. Among them, a group photograph, captured in one of those moments of complete immersion, was distinguished by the jury of an international competition, achieving 68th place among approximately 1,500 submitted works. A recognition that reinforces the expressive power of these images and the impact that this energy has left inscribed in this collective journey.

“We’ll make it to America yet!”
A phrase he would launch as an impulse, almost a battle cry, whenever it was necessary to push the group — and the photographer — forward.