Tommaso Protti, Laureat of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award
Amazônia

Chaired by Yolanda Kakabadse, Ecuador’s former Minister of the Environment between 1998 and 2000 and President of WWF from 2010 to 2017. It was awarded to Tommaso Protti.
From January to July 2019, Italian photojournalist Tommaso Protti, accompanied by British journalist Sam Cowie, travelled thousands of miles across the Brazilian Amazon to create this reportage. From the eastern region of Maranhão to the western region of Rondônia, through the states of Pará and Amazonas, they portrayed life in modern day Brazilian Amazon, where social and humanitarian crises overlap with the ongoing destruction of the rainforest.

“I wanted to illustrate the social trans- formations, focusing on the veiled truth of the bloodshed and destruction that are currently taking place in the re- gion. These diverse forms of violence are the consequences of changes in the global market, as well as of the exponential increase of global consumption, from cocaine to beef. Scientists claim the forest is reaching a point of no return because of deforestation, fuelled by illegal logging, and because of land grabbing, agricultural expansion, state and private sectors led development and resource extraction projects. I believe it is important to raise awareness of this situation and question it.”
Tommaso Protti

Tommaso Protti (Italy, 1986) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. He started his career as a photographer in 2011 after graduating in Political Science and International Relations. Since then, he has devoted himself on creating his own long-term projects. His work has been exhibited internationally and his photographs have been published in major titles. He also works with international organizations such as the United Nations. Tommaso is a member of Angustia agency.