Judges
3rd PLACE
Courtesy of Leonardo Carrato
Leonardo Carrato
Born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1983, Leonardo Carrato threw himself into a photographic journey in 2012 driven by his passion. Leo is based in Rio de Janeiro and works as a photographer and filmmaker. In 2013 trying to overcome the mainstream media and making information more democratic, he co-founded an independent media collective called Coletivo Carranca. Among the group, he could finally give voice to the deep and organic stories of the streets of Rio de Janeiro. While working as an independent photographer in this horizontal media group, Leo developed the project called “The Uprising,” which is an inside view of the riots that drove millions of people out on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. In 2014, Leo started the 2-year multimedia project “Article 6” which explores the core of Rio’s social problems.
The desire to connect with his continent’s native culture, identity and unfold the hidden history carried Leo to the Amazon. Since 2015, he has been working on a long-term project about a native Bora shaman deep inside the Peruvian rainforest. Also, to uncover the indigenous community's search for identity, Leo is documenting with visual narratives stories, the Brazilian collective memory, its ruins, and its scars from the military dictatorship that ruled the country for long 21 years.
Leo recently completed the VII Mentor Program and his work has been published by Der Spiegel, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Die Ziet and El País.
En Bora - The Amazon's True Guardian
The Amazon is made of rich biodiversity, shaped by a complex Cosmo political arena of living beings and at the core of it all lays its protagonist: The Shaman. He is an indigenous spiritual leader who holds all the knowledge for a possible future. In a westernized concept, the Shaman is a scientist or a diplomat among Amazon's native population.
?Aladino Mimico is a Shaman, a Native South American living in a world that knows no such labels. Rather, he is Bora, which is what his ethnic group is called. He lives in Pebas, a village in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest.
Political and macroeconomic forces pressure us into believing that there is but one way of living. Aladino might be the last one standing who is capable of making the world understand their true connection with the environment. In another possible world, bio-centered, where what really matters is life, Aladino has to be a vital agent.
The story is a psychological journey going beyond the facts that threaten the existence of a millennial culture and our planet. A profound view of the contemporary challenges climate change has forced a true Amazon guardian to face in this uncertain period.