Photographer Adam Amengual

For his series Homies, Contender Adam Amengual spent time at LA's Homeboy Industries, a non-profit organization that provides counseling, job training and other free services to former gang members (and the formerly incarcerated) looking to re-enter and contribute to society.
Amengual says of the organization, "It is a place that takes people in and sees the potential in them when others do not." Of the series, he explains:
In shooting this project I hope that people can see the subjects for what they are, humans trying to better themselves. The style in which these people have been photographed begs the comparison to a mug shot. Almost all of these people have been arrested and have had a mug shot taken of them. I feel like I have... made a more beautiful version of an ugly picture from their past—just like what the subjects themselves are doing with their own lives.

                                                >>>Adam Amengual