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Brasilia’s 1,000,000 Person Orchestra (18 photos)

At first, photographer Gustavo Minas didn’t know what to make of Brasília. Originally from a bucolic town in Brazil’s countryside, he was surprised by the carefully plotted capital, which seemed static; the cavernous public spaces and modernist sidewalks were perennially empty. “The only place I could find some chaos and energy was in the central transport station,” he said. Nearly one million people pass through Rodoviária do Plano Piloto’s corridors daily, connecting the wealthy urban center with the less prosperous regions surrounding it. “It’s a place where two worlds mix—people both from the lower-class satellite towns and from the affluent blocks within Plano Piloto,” Minas said. “It’s also the place where many hopeless outsiders who come to the capital roam, trying to get a job or begging, sleeping under its arcades at night, by themselves or with their families.” Minas captures the frenzy of the transportation hub in his essay “Rodoviária,” or “Bus Stop,” with images that reveal a symphony of commuters, buses, shadows, glass, and concrete.