meet Amanda

I am a Brazilian journalist and photodocumentarist, and OptOut News Climate Editor. My work is mostly focused on climate justice, traditional communities, socioenvironmental issues and migration. I’m currently based in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where I’m originally from.

I’m a Pulitzer Center Rainforest grantee and MetCalf Institute fellow. I am also a master in Journalism, Media and Globalisation, with a diploma from Aarhus University, the Danish School of Media and Journalism, and Charles University, as well as a specialist in Public Policies and Gender Justice from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences. 

In 2022, after almost three years living abroad, I decided to move back to Brazil, so I could dedicate myself to documenting the diverse realities that make up my homeland. With my local insights and international experience, my goal is to make a dual movement: on the one hand, shed a light internationally on Brazilian stories and issues; on the other, help promote local and hyperlocal journalism, so that traditional and marginalized communities have better tools to tell their own stories. 

In my storytelling, I strive to cocreate with the people whose stories I have the honor to tell. I constantly work toward being aware of my privileges and to use them as best as I can to break cycles of systemic injustice. Over the past years, I’ve been learning how to use journalism and photography to do this.