Amazon Droughts. Musuk Nolte. & Brazil’s Worst-Ever Floods. Amanda Maciel Perobelli.Two of the Winners of World Press Photo 2025 until 8 giugno 2025. Palazzo Esposizioni, Roma – Italia.

Droughts in the Amazon, especially in the Amazon, Negro, and Solimões rivers, are reaching alarming levels. One of the major tributaries of the Amazon River has recorded its lowest level in history, as reported by Brazil’s geological service, reflecting a severe drought that has devastated the Amazon rainforest and other parts of the country. Water levels in the Amazon naturally fluctuate between the rainy and dry seasons, but this year’s dry season has been much more severe than usual. All major rivers in the Amazon basin are at critical levels.

This phenomenon, associated with climate change, threatens not only biodiversity and river ecosystems but also the livelihoods of local communities that depend on these rivers for sustenance. Many of these communities have been cut off, and their boats have become stranded on large sandbanks. Due to the projected recurrence of droughts in the coming years, several communities are considering abandoning their territories and migrating to cities.

Musuk Nolte (Ciudad de Mexico, 1988 / Nationalized Peruvian). His work strives between documentary and artistic photography to approach social issues, such as memory and environmental depredation. Throughout his career, Nolte has often worked with communities and cultures from the Andean and Amazonian regions, integrating their different cosmovisions in an atmospheric approach to the subjects, he puts in tension the individual’s representation with their own imaginary. He holds a degree in Professional Photography and a specialisation in contemporary Photography. Has been awarded in several competitions, such as  the World Press Photo in the Regional Singles Category (2023),  X National Photography Award “Eugene Courret” (2009), among others. He has been FONCA Fellow(2010), ON AIR – Krems Residency program (2007), World Press Photo Master Class-Latam (2015), Magnum Foundation’s Emergency Fund (2017), The Elliott Erwitt HC7 Fellowship (2017) presented with solo shows in Paris Photo (2017) and PhotoEspaña XX (2018), MAST Foundation Grant nominee (2019), Leica Oscar Barnack Award nominee (2020), Lightworks artist in residency and Bertha Foundation Fellow (2022). Actually is a National Geographic Explorer, working on a long-term project regarding water accessibility in different regions of Peru, an issue he has been exploring in the last few years.
He has presented 18 solo shows and has been part of several group exhibitions in museums, biennials and events such as Museo de Arte de Lima – MALI (Lima Art Museum), Lima Metropolitan Museum, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo – MAC (Lima Contemporary Art Museum), III Photoquai Biennale, Singapore Photography Biennial, lll Daegu Photo Biennale, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Angkor Photography Festival, PhotoEspaña XX and XXl, XV Architecture Venice Biennale, Fototeca Latinoamericana – FoLa, Paris Photo, among others. Musuk has published seven books: “PIRUW” (with Leslie Searles), “La Primera Piedra”, “Flor de Toé” (with VS Photo), “La Velocidad de la Deriva”, “Sombra de Isla”, “La Resistencia del Silencio”, “Geographies of Water” and “Las Pertenencias del Aire”. Since 2013, Nolte is the founder and editor of KWY Ediciones, an independent publishing house and platform for visual narratives for Latin American authors and is also part of the research team of VIST Projects, a multiplatform content laboratory dedicated to creating contemporary visual narratives on social and cultural themes. Between 2008-2012, he was a staff photographer in El Comercio newspaper, and contributor in national and international media and NGO such as Time, National Geographic, Newsweek Japan, GEO France, The Nation, LeFigaro, Corridera della Sera, CNN International, Internazionale, L’Insensé, Etiqueta Negra, El País, Folha Sao Paulo, Greenpeace, United Nations, Wildlife Conservation Society, among others. Recently made his first movie as a codirector cinematographer in “Diogenes” (Leonardo Barbuy, 2023).

Brazil’s Worst-Ever Floods. After three days of ferocious rains, Edite de Almeida and her husband fled their flooded home in early May and let loose their humble dairy herd on higher ground. Nearby, the waters rose above her head and within a day they were lapping at the roofs of houses. Record-breaking floods in southern Brazil, the result of weather patterns intensified by climate change, have only started to recede after displacing half a million people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and killing more than 160. The full extent of the losses is still coming into focus, especially in rural areas where farmers like Almeida and her family produce much of Brazil’s rice, wheat and dairy. Nearly 6,500 family farms flooded by this month’s torrential downpours, according to analysis of satellite data by consultancy Terra Analytics. The floods have rattled agricultural markets as they disrupted soy harvesting, washed out silos, snared farm exports and killed over 400,000 chickens. The government is lining up rice imports to blunt the impact on national inflation figures. The washed out farms and roads around the state capital Porto Alegre have contributed to food and water shortages in the area, adding to the crisis disrupting the lives of more than 2 million people. Parts of the state saw more than 700 mm (28 inches) of rain so far this month, national weather service INMET reported – more than London’s average rainfall in a year. They are 30 families in the settlement who produced enough rice, vegetables, milk, eggs and pork to make a living, build and furnish homes and send their children to university. The floods have left all of that hanging in the balance.

Amanda Maciel Perobelli. My earliest memory of photography is of my family’s albums of 6 x 6 reflex camera pictures. Looking at the frames of my mother pregnant on the beach and my father skateboarding with long hair, I gained a deeper understanding of who they were, our history and memories. I was sent to cover Brazilian soccer player Neymar playing with his friends. I started to shoot from above and later from the ground, but it became very crowded and I was jostling for space with other members of the press, not to mention the many fans. I had so much trouble just getting decent shots. I learned that I had to be better prepared, to always bring anything you might need to do your job, like a ladder if you are 1.6m tall. And that it is worth standing your ground, even if people are almost running over you. I’ve also learned to always focus on the job, on the pictures I’m taking and to never care about others around me. Covering the burials of COVID-19 victims is an assignment that affected me the most. As the protocols changed to avoid contamination, families have no time to mourn their loved ones. This cruel disease makes for a fast and very hard goodbye. People don’t get to look at their loved ones a last time, or to hug or hold the caskets. These are broken-hearted times, and it’s really, really sad to see. Social issues, inequality, violence or conflict and the environment interest me. I love to be able to tell stories to try and shed light on what’s really going on. I don’t think much of a specific audience when I’m shooting pictures. I think more about my subject, what is happening in front of me. And how to photograph in a way that makes people feel something, and hopefully gets them to think about it. Always be respectful and patient, and trust your intuition. I was once waiting in front of a police station to photograph a woman who had accused Neymar of rape. More experienced colleagues were taking up positions while waiting for her to come out. For a few seconds, it crossed my mind that I might be in the wrong spot. But I stayed where I had chosen. When the woman left the police station, her lawyer carried her in his arms. Police blocked the sides and though my colleagues couldn’t get the picture, I got lucky. If I hadn’t trusted myself and my own judgement, I would have lost as well. Instead, I got the shot! Go shoot on the streets. That is where and how you will grow. And never, never get to a place with a preconceived idea of the assignment or subject. Watch, listen and pay attention to what is going on around you. I respect so many photographers! Lynsey Addario, James Nachtwey, Nair Benedicto. All shooting different conflicts and cultures, but all always producing very powerful images. Nair, for example, created very important photojournalism, but also documented Brazilian women in various spaces and places.