The Battle of the Barbers: a photographic essay

Abstract

This visual essay documents a competition that brings together hundreds of barbers – most of whom are young men who live in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (Brazil). Ethnographic evidence suggests that this segment of the informal labor market has been flourishing in the last few years and that digital platforms have radically transformed it. The photographs have been taken as part of a more extensive research project. In the broader investigation, I explore how social media have reshaped longstanding modalities of informal work in Brazil, including autonomous, self-employed, gig work, and petty entrepreneurship. Combining ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups, the research examines the drastic economic, social, and political consequences stemming from the encounter between socioeconomic struggles in a peripheral capitalist society and algorithm-driven companies based in Silicon Valley.