Gabriela Portilho

Gabriela Portilho (b. 1986 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a documentary photographer and visual journalist currently based between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. She consistently works on assignments for outlets including The New York Times, National Geographic, Vogue, The New Yorker, NPR, New York Magazine, Wallpaper Magazine, Le Monde Diplomatique, Capital Magazine, Causette, De Volkskrant, FIMI, and UNICEF. 

Her work often investigates the relationship between human beings and their territories focusing on environmental and gender issues. Her images are born from the friction between the boundaries of reality and imagination, consciousness and the unconscious, blossoming at the borders of photography, poetry, and politics.

In 2023, she was honored with the Carolina Hidalgo Vivar Environmental Award at POY Latam for her work on women beekeepers in Brazil. In 2022, I was awarded the Amazon Rainforest Journalism Fund from the Pulitzer Center, enabling her to document the candidacies of indigenous women in the Amazon during the Brazilian elections.

She is one of the founders of Doroteia, a Brazilian collective focused on under-reported stories of women in Brazil. She is also a member of the Women Photograph and Native Agency and a former member of the Latin American collective Ruda.

Gabriela completed a Bachelor's dual degree in Journalism and Art History from the University of São Paulo and the University of Lumière Lyon II in France. Since graduating, she has been focused on covering issues related to the environment, gender, politics, history, and culture.

To expand the horizons of her photographic practice, over the last five years, she has also engaged in educational projects for youth and teenagers, employing photography as a tool for self-discovery and social transformation.