All photos © Joao Canziani.

Joao Canziani, a New York City-based editorial and commercial photographer, is usually on the hunt for personal projects when not shooting assignments. He says, “I’ve always been fascinated by people who are a little different, or think differently, from the rest.” Canziani was intrigued by his friend’s mom, Duston Spear, an art teacher who started teaching classes at a female maximum security prison. He was impressed by how she was unfazed by the intensity of the setting and focused on the therapeutic knowledge she was imparting to aid in the rehabilitation of the women.

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All Photos © João Canziani

“I was sent to shoot the city of Manaus by Travel & Leisure Magazine a few years back and was shocked to find that it wasn’t just a small village, but a thriving town of two million people in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Everything had changed more than 40 years ago when the Brazilian government decided to make the area a tax-free zone. Multinational corporations set up shop there, and everything else you found in a big city followed suit, like pollution and maddening traffic. Being there felt like being in the Wild West at the turn of the 20th Century. That was its charm to me; an odd mix of characters seeking opportunity in this totally incongruous place. As if such a big city doesn’t belong in the jungle, but somehow it’s there – and it’s definitely there to stay. Fitting that two big rivers meet here to form the Amazon River. The black waters of the Rio Negro meet the murky brown waters of the Solimões; but for some mysterious reason they don’t mix, instead running alongside each other for miles.” – João Canziani.

Canziani is an editorial and commercial photographer based in New York City. To see more of his work click here.

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© João Canziani.

At the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu, Perú. To see more of João’s work from Peru click here.