Members of the Serra Pelada Civil Police Force. Pará, Brazil. 1980s | 🇧🇷 "The Brazilian Gold Rush" In the early 1980s, gold was discovered on a remote farm in the state of Pará, Brazil. Word spread quickly, and 50,000 - 100,000 men abandoned their jobs, families, and homes in the hope of striking it rich. What followed was extreme disorder: dozens of murders each month, along with rampant gambling, prostitution, fighting and drinking in the surrounding settlements. The men pictured here in front of the makeshift district station at Serra Pelada are among those who risked their lives every day to uphold a fragile sense of order and justice amid the violence, desperation, and chaos of the gold rush.