Last October I was assigned by the Washington Post for a story on the ethanol facilities, including the sugarcane farms that blanket miles and miles of bright red soil in the state of Goias, Brazil. Long gone are the back breaking manual labor, these days the major ethanol corporations use machines to cut sugarcane, operated by some of the same men who once cut the stalks by hand.
Story: Setbacks for Brazil's Ethanol Sector
Gallery: sugarcane
I am so thankful to Newsweek picture editor Leah Latella (who is also a rockin' folk singer and musician) for publishing my project, La Vida No Vale Nada, on the effects of violence in post-war Guatemala.
"Last year, there were 34.5 murders for every 100,000 people in the country. That’s a decreased rate from previous years, although the first half of 2013 actually showed an increasing number of murders. Violence still touches far too many lives in Guatemala, where nearly 100 people were murdered each week last year."
Please click on the link above to read the story and to the see the project.
"Over the Rainbow: What is it like to be gay around the world?" is a portrait series of people from around the world sharing their thoughts and opinions about the challenges (or not) of being gay in their country.
I photographed Bruna Costa, 27, a Carioca (a resident of Rio de Janeiro). Please click on the image or the link above to read about Bruna.
In October I went to the interior of Bahia state, a region far from the turquoise blue waters near the capital of Salvador. The region is hot, and windy. So windy in fact it has become the perfect setting for wind turbines because of its unique constant flow of wind across this region. Please check out the story: In Brazil, the wind is blowing in a new era of renewable energy.
Gallery: Wind Energy in Brazil
Archive: Bahia's Wind Power
I feel very fortunate that this photo essay continues to be published around the world! Please check out the work: Wrecking Homes for the Olympics
"Largo do Tanque is one of many neighborhoods being torn down to build the Transcarioca highway, which will facilitate traffic flowing to Olympic sites for the 2016 Summer Games."
Lead image of Rio de Janeiro for a column written about Die Zeit's Rio correspondent Thomas Fischermann, who I work with regularly.
Sergio and I love the same ice cream. Chocolate and hazelnut.
The "Father of Brazilian furniture," they say, Mr Rodrigues pioneered the transformation of industrial design in Brazil. The shoot was for Last Meal column, which featured his favorite restaurant and dish, in his native city of Rio de Janeiro.
Story on the women pacification police in Rio de Janeiro.
Las Guerreras de las Favelas - "These women fought two fights: one against the crime and the another against sexism. Until 30 years ago women couldn't not be police officers in Rio de Janeiro, but now, after a long struggle, some of them lead the most ambitious operation to pacify the city."
I love the process of things in the making, whether through photography, food, surfing, winemaking or, at Anchor Distillery, whiskey distilling. Catch a great story on the craft in the Fall issue of Whiskey Advocate.
Craft whiskey distilling got off to an uneven start in America. There were a couple of early pioneers 20 years back and more, like Anchor, Clear Creek, and St. George, that we were quite excited about at the time. Microbrewing was taking off, now it was going to be microdistilling, and every town would soon have a brewery and a distillery—at least one—making wonderful stuff that every right-thinking person would drink all the time." - Lew Bryson, writer
She's the head of a plant genetics lab at UC Davis; he teaches organic farming there. They're married (with kids), and they coauthored, Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food.
Aug 2013 for New Internationalist story on forced evictions in Rio for 2016 Olympics.
Immigration stories are probably one of my most favored topic in journalism, and maybe its because I am the daughter of an immigrant parent. But I always discover the most incredible stories of families walking to the end of the earth to make a better life for themselves, something that goes beyond superficial comments of illegality. In my opinion, the issue is far more complicated then illegal immigration because to me, the point really is, to what extent of human survival does it take to make it in this world. It's certainly not easy journey for the families who come from afar to the United States.
I was fortunate to meet Renata's family in Criciuma, a town of 200,000 residents, in the beautiful state of Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil. Her older brother had a thick Boston accent, and the younger sister had a mild one. And during dinner, sitting at their dining room table made by the Portuguese community in Fall River, Mass., I would find myself forgetting that I was even in Brazil at that moment.
How immigration reform would affect 3 families
Its been an incredible couple weeks watching and photographing the awakening of social protests in Brazil, especial in Rio de Janeiro. Here's a dramatic image (cropped) of ab off-duty police officer disposing his empty guns into a street fire in Centro, and a cut-out of a young woman wearing the Brazilian flag, below.
Protests in Rio de Janeiro, and other major Brazilian cities began with a 20-cent hike in public transport fares, have now moved beyond that issue to widespread frustration about a heavy tax burden, corrupt politicians and weak public education, health and transport systems, as Brazil hosted the Confederations Cup soccer tournament last week, and now prepares for the Pope's visit in July.
The sushi is pretty good and the views are worth a million bucks. The word slums often used to described the poorer surrouding areas of Rio is sort of a dated term...sadly, still used by the media. Locally, they are called communities. I've been in the homes of far worse poverty then in the favelas of Rio. The pacification process is an ambitious work in progress as we discovered during this assignment with conflicting opinions of the residents. Wandering through alleyways of the favelas looking for surprises, nice light, and the listening to the sounds of life always makes photographing interesting!