Tommaso Protti captures the dark side of the Brazilian Amazon in Paris show

Italian photographer Tommaso Protti won the 10th Carmignac photojournalism award with his black and white series Amazônia - Life and death in the Brazilian rainforest.

A member of the Guajajara forest guard at the sight of a toppled tree cut down by suspected illegal loggers on the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão State. Araribóia, Maranhão, 2019 © Tommaso Protti/Fondation Carmignac

Tommaso Protti started his project in January 2019 accompanied with British journalist Sam Cowie. For 7 months, they documented life in modern day Brazilian Amazon.

Drunken 'garimpeiros' (wildcat miners) in a bar in Crepurizão, a gold mining town in southwestern Pará State. Crepurizão, Pará, 2019 © Tommaso Protti/Fondation Carmignac

Protti's work shows a harsh reality where social and humanitarian crises overlap with the destruction of the tropical forest.

He explained to RFI how he discovered the region in the beginning.

His photo series Amazônia are on display at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris opening on 4 December and running until 16 February 2020.

You can also see them on the gates of the Paris Townhall from 30 November to 10 January 2020.

Kayapó children play behind a waterfall in the Kuben-Kran Ken village, in the southern Pará State. Kayapó, Pará, 2019 © Tommaso Protti/Fondation Carmignac

A deforested area in the southern Maranhão State seen from the helicopter of IBAMA, Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. Grajaú, Maranhão, 2019 © Tommaso Protti/Fondation Carmignac