In Santiago, Chile, there is a vast population of vagabond children who beg in the parks and sleep anywhere they can, forming an independent sort of tribe in the middle of the city with their own language, customs, etc. They work with older men who use them for begging, teaching them the routines and habits and crime, which is their only future. The kids are

wary of the poorhouses because they are treated and fed badly there. Sometimes people give them money and food.

They gather in clans, often run by older boys who have a hold over them. On the whole, the street is fun for them, and they prefer it to the safety of state institutions. Sergio Larrain, a

Magnum photographer-turned-monk, took up photography in the early 1950s. This body of work, taken in 1957 in the

Chilean capital Santiago, can be considered one of Larrain’s first major series, in which he demonstrated his very particular

way of seeing. © Sergio Larrain / Magnum Photos