Carolina Arantes

Carolina Arantes is a Brazilian documentary photographer, naturalized French and working internationally. Carolina has received several important photographic grants and awards (such as Firecracker and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant). Her long-term photo-documentary work "First Génération" was recently published as a book by Fisheye Editions.

In the last two years, Carolina was the female artist invited by the Centre George Pompidou to confer on women artists during the thematic year "Elles font l’Art »(2020), as well as to develop artistic projects with teenagers and participate in conferences organized by the museum. Her work is part of public collections and has been published in renowned international medias. She is also a National Geographic Explorer. 

Born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1980, Carolina grew up between the countryside of and the megalopolis of Sao Paulo where she graduated in Photography degree at SENAC and Social Communication/Journalism at the Catholic University. After two years working as a trainee journalist, she went to a Master degree in Cultural Project Development at Barcelona University in 2006. Carolina was already pursuing a Photographic personal activity since a teenager but, it was in 2008 that she realized the magnitude Photography had taken in her life.

While working at Cinèmathéque de la Dance in Paris in 2009, she started giving her firsts steps toward a Professional career. Patrick Bensard, who was the director of the Cinèmathéque, had been Lee Friedlander’s assistant by his turn and had pushed her forward after seeing her starting works. In 2011, she went to a workshop with Christopher Morris (VII Agency) and started assisting him on some assignments in France. This mentorship experience gave her the opportunity to reflect on different ways of seeing photojournalism and then to develop her own personal body of documentary work.  

Gender and Identity issues were always important questions in her personal and professional life. Having moved houses so many times, she never felt to belong somewhere. The fact of coming from a country where female roles are difficult to change and representation structures are fragile, and developed on a melting pot of mixed origins, intrigued her about how colonial history is still present in democracies today.  These issues are always surrounding her work and personal Stories.
Based in Paris, France, Carolina works as an independent photographer and pursues documentary stories internationally - mainly between Europe and South America (mostly in Brazil) - covering personal projects, corporate works, and news as well. Some of her main personal projects are involving the concerned communities and developing human rights actions.

• Pompidou Museum 2020 - Female Artist invited to the main Conference of the year « Elles font l’Art » 
• Pompidou Museum 2021 - Artist Invited at « Hors Murs » Festival Talk
• Photo Collection of National French Library, BNF
• National Geographic Explorer 2020
• Laureate Firecracker Grant 2017
• Laureate Lagardère Foundation Grant for Documentary Photographers 2015
• Finalist in Julia Margaret Cameron 2015, “Invisible Women” category 
• Finalist at Emergentes DST Prize, Braga Photo Festival, 2013

• La Gacilly Photo Festival, Baden, 2021
• La Gacilly Photo Festival, La Gacilly, 2020
• FOTODOKS, Munich, 2019
• Indian Photo Festival + National Geographic, Hyderabad, 2019
• Forum des Images, Festival “Un Etat du Monde”, Paris, 2019
• “Aurora” exhibition, Modern Art Museum of Pernambuco + French Consulate, Recife, 2017
• ARPIA Projection, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, France, 2017
• Projection, Angkor Festival, Cambodia, 2016
• “LOOKING FORWARD” New York Times first exhibition in Africa, LagosPhoto Festival, 2015
• Emergentes DST Prize Exhibition, Braga Photo Festival, 2013
  
  
   www.carolinaarantes.com / + 33 6 69 03 71 37 / carantes.pro@gmail.com