MAURO PIMENTEL 

Mauro Pimentel, 37, works at Agence France-Presse (AFP) as staff photojournalist based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, since 2017.  Before that, he worked as a regular freelance photojournalist for Associated Press, Folha de São Paulo, Estadao, El País, Veja and UOL. Pimentel has covered many stories, such as Nelson Mandela’s funeral, the Brumadinho Dam collapse, the Paralympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and the long popular riseup of protests between 2013 and 2014 in Brazil against corruption. Since the first cases of COVID-19 his effort is to cover stories that show the impact of the pandemic in the Brazilian society and its relation with other major social and environmental topics that are a long time problem in Brazil. His multimedia project “Stray Bullets” , is an intimate portrait of relatives and victims of violence in Rio de Janeiro. This project was awarded the 5th Petrobras Journalism Award, was finalist of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Award and won second place at WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards LATAM. Recently two Vladimir Herzog Awards, main journalistic prize of Brazil and another honorable Mention at POY Latam 2023, news category, with the photo essay called "Just Another Bloody Day?" showing blood trail left by police operations against drug traffickers who break record of deaths during the government of Jair Bolsonaro. The communities become a battleground we could witness in several cases leaving a trail of blood spread in the houses and streets of favelas all over Rio de Janeiro.