A boy clowning around on a basketball court in a Colombian cocaine corridor: Mads Nissen’s best photograph
Danish photographer Mads Nissen documented cocaine production networks across Colombia to explore systemic poverty and civil-conflict displacement rather than reinforce international stereotypes. Working in Potrero Grande, a Cali suburb critical to drug trafficking, he examined how constrained economic opportunity and gang presence shape life in these neighbourhoods.
His 2017 image shows nine-year-old Didiller Angulo playing basketball late into the evening in this volatile area, capturing a moment of childhood amid severely limited futures. When Nissen returned to the neighbourhood years later, he learned the boy had reportedly been killed, though he could not verify the account, illustrating the grave risks facing young people in such environments.
- Danish photographer Mads Nissen documented cocaine supply chains across Colombia to expose systemic inequality rather than reinforce stereotypes about the country
- His 2017 photograph captures a nine-year-old playing basketball in a gang-controlled neighbourhood where poverty and limited opportunity dominate daily life
- Nissen learned years later the boy had reportedly died, underscoring the acute dangers facing children in conflict-affected regions