5 Months After Hurricane Maria, Omar Z Robles Captures Powerful Photos of Dancers in Puerto Rico

Odds are you already know the photography of Omar Z Robles, whose images of dancers in striking natural settings mesmerize his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. Recently, Robles paid a visit to his native Puerto Rico for the first time since it was devastated by Hurricane Maria. And the images he captured of its resilient dancers, finding beauty in the ruined landscape, will bring tears to your eyes.

“Five months after the hurricane…my island, my people, my family still carry open wounds from that horrendous day,” Robles writes in a blog post about the experience:

During my visit I gathered so many terrifying stories from my friends and relatives about their experiences during and after the hurricane. They told me about how they stayed up all night holding doors and windows for hours as the wind was about to burst into their homes. About how the extreme heat wave that took over right after as not one single tree was spared. The shortage of supplies and food and the lack of traffic lights caused chaos and hysteria in the streets. A cloud of smog that built up in the atmosphere due to the widespread usage of power generators. Stories about standing in line for over 12 hours to get gasoline and over 6 hours just to buy ice or food.

Please read the whole post
, which features more moving photos and pays testament to the struggles Puerto Ricans have faced—and continue to face—in the wake of the hurricane.