Riot police use pepper gas against residents of the Telerj slum as they attempt to repossess the land in Rio de Janeiro, in this April 11, 2014 file picture. I was shooting the clear-out by the police of a building which belonged to a giant telecommunications company and had been taken over by homeless people a week earlier. It was my third day there as I was doing a photo essay on the occupation and I was more interested in the aesthetics of the shacks and how people managed to build a home. Still, there was tension in the air that the police could invade the place at any moment. When I arrived that morning, it was still dark and I saw more than 1,000 police officers surrounding the area. Some of the homeless were leaving on their own but there was a lot of confusion and small riots outside. I took this picture about 15 minutes after I managed to enter the area, which was very challenging. The image is both strong and sad because the man is poor, black, unarmed and helpless against a whole squad of a heavily armed police spraying tear gas right into his eyes. - Ana Carolina Fernandez
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