Buenos Aires, Argentina

María Elena Ferreira grooms Mora, a white toy poodle, at a shop in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ferreira, who has groomed dogs part time for 15 years, says, “What I like most is working at the veterinary clinic. When I work with animals, I feel relaxed, and I love being with them. The majority [of the dogs] are good. Once you pet them, they relax and stay calm.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fernando Nuñez pivots in the air on his BMX bike at Parque Centenario, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nuñez, who has been practicing and performing BMX tricks for 10 years, says riders meet in the park to share tips and teach each other new skills.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Gabriel Herbas, who works at the entrance of his business to prevent people going inside during the coronavirus pandemic, upholsters a chair in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Herbas says he has more work because of the economic crisis: “Now, there’s a greater tendency to repair things because the price of clothes has gone through the roof.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Valeria Ramírez prepares pasta at a food stand in the Mercado de San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. “We are innovating a lot to distinguish ourselves,” Ramírez says. “I like it a lot because I interact with people. Every Sunday, I prepare a different dish to surprise them. It’s like a date.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Juan Baez and José Luis Arribas prepare meat for customers at the Mercado de San Telmo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “I have been working here for 52 years,” Arribas says. “What I like most about this work is speaking with people. Now I’m waiting on my customers’ grandchildren.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Malena Szabo, right, holds a sign shaped like a teacher’s smock during a protest in front of a school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Educators organized the protest to demand virtual classes and coronavirus vaccines after the death of fellow teacher Silvina Flores.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Juan Carlos Martell, center, leaps upside down during an acrobatics session at Rivadavia Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Martell and his brother started offering acrobatics classes outdoors in October 2020, when gyms and training centers closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sabrina Palazzo and her mother, Alcira Pereyra, study a feminist mural in an exhibit at the Recoleta Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “I came to get vaccinated, and we took advantage of [the outing] to walk around,” Pereyra says.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Susana Mondini, left, leads Silvia Squadrone, second from right, Ana María Buelta, right, and others in a yoga class for the elderly at Paseo de la Vida: Dr. René Favaloro, a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “I’ve been doing yoga for many years. My bones hurt if I don’t,” says Squadrone. “When the [COVID-19] outbreak happened, we did it by WhatsApp. But it’s different in person, especially here, where it’s so beautiful.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Painter Sol Rivero uses a tree as her easel at Parque Rivadavia, a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Rivero began to paint outside to share her creative process with the public and spread her name in new places.

Emmanuel Palavecino arranges donated books in a mobile library cart at Plaza Almagro, a park in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The mobile library travels to the city’s markets to make literature more accessible to residents.

Ensenada, Argentina

Fabián Moriano cuts through the waves on his kiteboard outside the clubhouse of the Grupo de Aficionados al Surf a Vela, a local windsurfing and kitesurfing enthusiast group in Ensenada, a municipality in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province. “I’ve been kitesurfing for 10 years. During the months when I couldn’t go into the water because of the quarantine, I felt a lot of anxiety,” Moriano says. “Any sport with this [much] adrenaline resets your mind.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Juan Ponce puts away cheese and lunch meat at a deli stand in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “This is not my thing,” Ponce says, drying the sweat off his forehead. “I studied art up to my third year in the university in Venezuela before I emigrated. But it’s nice in Buenos Aires. It’s a very diverse, very open city.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Julio El Ahmed, 80, repairs a pot, a service offered by his family business which has existed in the same place in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina for 110 years. “I was born in this house. My father taught me the trade; I grew up with it as a child. I haven’t thought of retiring. I have a lot of love for this; I like the work—what I do,” El Ahmed says. With no one poised to take over the business as of now, El Ahmed says that its future is in the hands of fate.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Shoemaker Paulino Juan, 80, repairs a shoe in the workshop where he runs his shoe repair business, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Juan has been a shoemaker for 60 years and says he does not want to retire. “All work is nice,” he says. “You have to work in order to live.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bboy Daygo practices before the finals of “Rumbo a Pura Calle 2019,” a breaking and hip-hop competition at the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “What I like the most about breaking is that it is infinite — you never stop learning — and it helps you be unique as a person,” says Daygo. “It’s very important to feel special in order to be happy.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sergio Paternò plays the electric guitar like a piano on Calle Florida, a pedestrian street in the center of Buenos Aires, Argentina. “I began one day, and I loved it,” he says. “It becomes a unique instrument. It is a different way of playing. We should all find different ways of doing things, otherwise we end up all the same – running to the same side.” He’s referring to people who walk quickly on the path.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mariano Cipolat, 37, works on a leather belt at the historic center of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cipolat has been making leather artisan goods for 10 years, and he explains why he learned the trade. “I was traveling through [South] America,” he says. “We got to Ecuador, and if I wanted to keep traveling, I needed to start working in something. As I never liked working in business, I started with crafts and didn’t stop.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

From left, sisters Cielito, 10, María Isabel, 24, and Génesis Neira, 15, jump rope at the Parque Chacabuco in Buenos Aires, Argentina. ‘’We like to jump the rope and to play volleyball,” María Isabel says. “Usually, we come on Sundays, but now we are taking advantage of the fact that the girls are on vacation, and so we come during the week too.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina

At Parque Chacabuco, a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thiago Herrera, 10, plays soccer tennis with neighborhood friends, debuting a new net that was given to them for Christmas. In this game, the ball is kicked over the net, and one team tries to get the ball to bounce on the other team’s side of the court.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Outside the Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Lorea De Arza Pochylak celebrates with family and friends after passing her last test at this medical school. It is a tradition in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for loved ones to throw flour, paint, oil, cider, carnival foam, and eggs on someone who has completed a college degree.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Nicolás Colautti, an industrial design student, presents his final project to other students at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, a university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For their project, Colautti’s team produced an exoskeleton that reduces effort and injuries for people who work with their arms raised.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fans of the Club Atlético River Plate football team celebrate at the obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the team won the Conmebol Libertadores 2018 cup. Winners of local South American tournaments compete in the Libertadores de América cup. One fan holds an umbrella with the team’s colors, red and white.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

At the Plaza de Mayo, a square in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Melody Fontana looks at drawings left by demonstrators who protested government delays in payments to assist people with disabilities. “Seeing all the drawings there are, and the effort they are putting into the fight, impacted me,” she says. “It excites me that the people are fighting for their rights, and the situation saddens me.”