Lula 2023

I arrived at the inauguration before dawn — 5:40 a.m. — to join the growing line that had been forming since the night before. Some had camped out since 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve; by sunrise, thousands were already filling Brasília’s central esplanade.

We stood for nearly ten hours beneath an unforgiving summer sun. People fainted, water ran out, medical tents overflowed. Still, no one left. They had come for this moment — to witness Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva walk up the Planalto ramp and take office as Brazil’s president once again.

These photographs do not show Lula. They are about the people — those who endured the heat, carried flags, cried, sang, and held each other up. In their faces I saw exhaustion and faith, pain and resilience, joy and relief. It was there, in the crowd, that history revealed itself.