Lalo de Almeida is a Brazilian photojournalist and documentary photographer based in São Paulo, Brazil. His work explores the relationship between humans and their environment, with a particular focus on the Amazon rainforest.
He studied photography at the Instituto Europeo di Design in Milan, Italy and began his career as a photojournalist covering daily news at small agencies there. Since returning to Brazil, he has worked for 30 years as a photographer for the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
Since 2010, Lalo has been producing short video documentaries and multimedia narratives, creating a series of internationally recognized projects, including ‘A World of Walls’, ‘The Battle of Belo Monte’, and ‘The Climate Crisis’.
In 2017, his photo essay on victims of the Zika virus earned him second place in the Contemporary Issues category at the World Press Photo awards. The accompanying video won first prize in the short video category at POY Latam.
In 2021, Lalo was named Ibero-American Photographer of the Year by POY Latam. That same year, he received the prestigious Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his ongoing project ‘Amazonian Dystopia’, which has documented the destructive impact of human occupation on the Amazon rainforest over the past 15 years. ‘Amazonian Dystopia’ also earned him a World Press Photo award in 2022.
In 2024, Lalo was honored with the Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal at Columbia University, New York.
