Henrik Saxgren - Solomon's House, the lost children of Nicaragua

Henrik Saxgren (1953-)

A Piercing Photographic Essay on Nicaraguas Street Children Solomons House is Danish photojournalist Henrik Saxgrens harrowing account of the dissolution of the social fabric in Nicaragua in the years following the revolution. The book opens with a Preface by Nicaraguan-born Bianca Jagger, an ardent spokesperson for human rights and childrens issues in Central America. Despite widespread poverty and the tensions of warfare present during Saxgrens first visits to Nicaragua in the 1980s, basic standards of decency and family unity prevailed. Upon his return to the country in the mid-1990s, Saxgren found vast numbers of children living on the streets and trapped in a downward spiral of dependency. At the heart of this story is life in the shantytowns, where teenage girls pay rent to sixty-year-old men through prostitution. Having turned to these men to find a way off the streets, the girls have discovered a dark semblance of family unity under the direst of circumstances. Through unforgettable photographs and stories, Solomons House offers a poignant revelation of the fragile nature of human society.