Dallas. When Charles Chatman (photo Justin Goode) woke up from his long nightmare, the world had changed. He had never seen a cell phone. He did not know what Internet was. He did not remember how to use a knife to eat. In his cell, the African-American who had been wrongly convicted of rape in 1981 and sentenced to 99 years in prison, watched more than 9800 days slowly go by. For 27 years, the inmate was identified by a number – 324559- rather than by his name.

Set of pictures taken by Jean-Cosme Delaloye on April 19 2008 during Barack Obama’s rally in Lancaster, PA.

Set of pictures taken by Jean-Cosme Delaloye during the pope’s trip to New York in April 2008.

Rio de Janeiro. The man holds a grenade in his hand. Around him, young men cruise around on motorbikes showing off their guns and laughing loudly. Police cars patrol the main road of Cidade de Deus 500 feet away, but here, at the end of a small street, drug dealers rule. The man with haggard eyes nervously asks questions. Don and Mingau, two rappers from the lower-class neighborhood located in the Western zone of Rio de Janeiro, reassure him and he finally lets them go through.

Rio de Janeiro, 25 March 2008. Name: Rodrigo Nogueira. Age: 26 years old. Activity: journalist. Ambition: to change the image of the Rio de Janeiro slums in Brazil and in the rest of the world. In the last 7 years, the Viva Favela website has been covering the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro to try to report about other news than the ones available in mainstream media. Rodrigo Nogueira says his team gives a voice to the people of the slums. “There is so much more than violence in the favelas, he says. There is a rich culture life and incredible people in the slums”.

In March 2008, Jean-Cosme Delaloye did in a feature story in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) of Rio de Janeiro. In this neighborhood marred by violence and infested by guns, people like the rappers Don and Mingau work hard to turn things around.

In March 2008, Jean-Cosme Delaloye did a feature story in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and met with journalists Viva Favela, a website which aims to convey a different image of the slums.

New York, March 31 2008. The man with the loop earring and the blue-tinted eyeglasses speaks emphatically. Sitting in his Manhattan office, Clarence Jones, one of Martin Luther King’s closest advisors and his former speechwriter, talks about the late reverend’s legacy in today’s America. In his new book What Would Martin Say?, Clarence Jones uses King’s life and speeches to discuss current issues such as race relations in the United States. When he speaks, Mr Jones waves his hands and does not hesitate to pause to find the right word, the right image. Racism has clearly left some scars on the 77-year old former lawyer. The man who loves Martin Luther King Jr like a brother and defends his role in contemporary American history, sees in Obama a potential president who could improve race relations in America.