In Photos: Inside London’s Paraíso School of Samba, shot by Mariana Pires

In a new collaboration with MPB, Crack Magazine has commissioned three emerging photographers to create original photo series documenting the communities and cultural spaces that matter most to them. The platform – a global marketplace for buying, selling, and trading used photo and video gear – provided each photographer with a £1,000 grant and access to equipment to support the creation of their work.

Visual artist Mariana Pires documents a London community preserving the traditions of Brazilian samba culture.

Born in Lisbon and now based in London, Portuguese-Mozambican photographer Mariana Pires has developed a portrait-driven practice centred on music, identity, and the visibility of marginalised and working-class bodies.

Her latest series, commissioned by Crack Magazine and MPB, is a vivid study of London’s Paraíso School of Samba – an award-winning performance group whose work spans percussion, music and dance alongside education initiatives, charity work, and costume and float construction.

What sets Paraíso apart is its singular position in the UK. Led by artists who grew up within Rio de Janeiro’s samba community, the collective closely follows the structure and objectives of the Brazilian School of Samba, preserving its core elements and playing only pure samba rather than the derivatives usually heard in the UK. Its creative leadership maintains active ties to those schools, ensuring that the culture practised in London is not an echo but a live transmission, continually refreshed by developments in Brazil. This authenticity shapes everything: the cadence of the drumming, the vibrancy of the costumes, and the year-round discipline that keeps the school moving as one.

Across the series, which was shot in just under three hours, Pires captures the heat and hum of a room alive with shared purpose. Limbs blur at the edges as dancers rehearse, their motion creating a soft, kinetic haze that speaks to bodies learning together. There’s a vitality to these images, a sense of people lifting one another and keeping rehearsals buoyant through encouragement, rhythm and sheer presence. In one portrait, two women flank a young girl in a Brazilian football shirt, striking her own pose – a small, perfect reminder of how this community is sustained across generations.

“What I really love about this team is how, despite all odds – you know, cutbacks within the arts – they still survive off their community,” Pires said of her work. “As an immigrant here in the UK, you come to realise that a lot of the culture comes from art and music.”

See Pires’ photos below and look out for our next two stories, shot by Jock Thomson and Irene Haro, later this month.