Vital Impacts: Carlos Folgoso Sueiro: Beyond the Lake

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Nacho is 40 years outdated and initially from Zaragoza, a metropolis nearly 1,000 kilometers away from Galicia. After a turbulent youth, he determined to isolate himself within the Galician mountains to reside a life much less depending on society. Today, he cares for his herd of goats, with whom he shares a really particular bond: he hugs them, talks to them, and cares for them as in the event that they had been his kids. Every morning, he takes them to the mountains early to allow them to graze, and he doesn’t return residence till dusk. In these animals, he appears to have discovered the which means of his existence. Nacho lives in an outdated, occupied stone home with out electrical energy. His food plan consists of greens and the milk his goats produce. As he himself says, his dream can be to eat just like the goats, feeding on the herbs of the mountains. Nacho leads a hermit-like life, discovering on this self-imposed exclusion from normalized society a real sense of freedom. May twenty fourth, 2024. VIlar, Galicia.

Now in its third 12 months, Vital Impacts has awarded seven environmental pictures fellowships totaling $50,000 and eleven year-long mentorships to visionary photographers illuminating the profound and infrequently fragile connection between individuals and the planet. As assist for indepth environmental storytelling declines and the urgency of those tales continues to develop, Vital Impacts champions the artists whose photographs spark empathy, encourage motion, and remind us of our collective accountability to guard the Earth we name residence.

Vital Impacts is thrilled to announce the 2026 recipients of $50,000 in Environmental Photography Fellowships, honoring the legacy of visionary leaders together with Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Chico Mendes, Madonna Thunder Hawk, E.O. Wilson and Ian Lemaiyan. Fellows had been chosen for his or her regionally rooted storytelling that highlights options and group resilience. In addition, 11 rising photographers will take part in year-long intensive mentorships, growing their craft and imaginative and prescient.

This 12 months’s judging panel included Alessia Glaviano, Head of Global PhotoVogue, Azu Nwagbogu, Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation and Lagos Photo Festival Evgenia Arbugaeva, National Geographic Storytelling Fellow and Academy Award Nominee, Okathy Moran, Deputy Director of Photography at National Geographic and Pat Kane, Vital Impacts Environmental Jane Goodall Fellowship Winner.

Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, (Verin, Spain) has been awarded the Chico Mendes Environmental Photography Fellowship for his venture, Beyond the Lake. Echoing the spirit of Chico Mendes, this venture explores rural Galicia, the place communities confront drought, wildfire, and depopulation whereas holding on to reminiscence and place.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Nestled within the lush landscapes of Galicia, a girl wearing conventional Galician apparel poses earlier than a meadow on the fringe of a wooded enclave. The vegetation, a testomony to Galicia’s historic abundance of rainfall, unfolds earlier than her. The essence of Galicia’s enduring inexperienced legacy, formed by the perennial rains which have blessed the area, is embodied within the silhouette of this girl, in a reference to nature that characterizes the individuals of Galicia. September 3th, 2023. Curbián, Galicia

Carlos Folgoso Sueiro is  a photographer and sociology scholar eager about human expertise. His  pictures addresses social and environmental points, exploring identification, reminiscence, and resilience.

His work has been printed in National Geographic, Geo, Stern, Sunday Times, and The British Journal of Photography, and exhibited at establishments such because the Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg) and Canal Isabel II (Madrid). He has obtained awards together with Pictures of the Year International, the Social Documentary Network award, and the Marco Pesaresi award. He has taken masterclasses with Donovan Wylie, Jonas Bendiksen, Alex Webb, Sarah Leen, and Magdalena Herrera, and took part within the XXXVI Eddie Adams Workshop and the New York Times Portfolio Review.

In 2020, a extreme again harm shifted his perspective. Since then, he started Beyond the Lake, a venture exploring his homeland, Galicia, metaphorically and socially. Other works embody The Shining Land, documenting distant Siberian cities impacted by the diamond commerce, and World’s Place Apart, a long-term venture on a self-excluded hippie group begun in 2005. For over ten years, he has additionally labored with information companies masking occasions such because the Lampedusa Sea tragedy, the Middle East refugee exodus, and the Costa Concordia catastrophe.

Instagram: @carlosfolgososueiro 

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, The Galician wild horse, also called “Besta” constitutes a novel cultural legacy with an awesome reference to the historical past of Galicia, its rural panorama, and its pure values. In the final half-century, the inhabitants of this animal has been lowered by half. Factors such because the abandonment of rural areas, deforestation as a result of fires, or the replanting of invasive species are resulting in the collapse of the Wild Horse inhabitants, a lot in order that its inhabitants has been lowered from 22,000 to lower than 10,000 heads prior to now 50 years, in line with a doctoral thesis from the University of La Coruña. These animals contribute to addressing a number of the issues derived from the local weather emergency, the depopulation of rural areas, and the biodiversity disaster. Although this colony of ‘Bestas’ stays the most important in Europe, it’s at critical threat of disappearance, in line with research from the University of La Coruña. July eighth, 2023. Sabucedo, Galicia.

Beyond the Lake

Tony used to come back residence with nuts, claiming that Rosemary had given them to him—although Rosemary existed solely in his goals. Adolf and Raúl’s home was set on hearth by neighbors over disputes about communal land. María spent her life as an emigrant, leaving her solely son, Emilio, in Galicia; after her return, Emilio died from alcoholism. The wild horses of Sabucedo barely roam, as deserted land is changed by forest replantations. Aceredo village froze in time when the Lindoso reservoir submerged it in 1992, marking the top of an period.

These tales come from rural Galicia (Northwest Spain) and its border with Portugal, the place actuality blends with legend, suspended between wealthy custom and current challenges. Galicia now faces a paradigm shift pushed by depopulation, abandonment, and local weather change. The large unfold of eucalyptus, a non-native tree, exposes industrial exploitation. The deliberate Altri manufacturing facility within the coronary heart of Galicia might intensify eucalyptus enlargement, threatening biodiversity, rising hearth dangers, degrading soil, and consuming 46 million liters of water every day from the Ulla River. Climate pressures compound social wounds: land abandonment, emigration, invasive monocultures, and alcoholism as an escape from restricted alternatives. Together, they expose the fragility of rural communities struggling to protect their identification.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Sabela, a younger Galician woman, performs within the forests of Palas de Rey, hugging a tree—a gesture that embodies the deep communion of the Galician individuals with their pure atmosphere. This forest, brimming with life and tales, starkly contrasts with the plans of the Portuguese firm Altri, which goals to construct a cellulose plant close by. The manufacturing facility is projected to eat 46 million liters of water per day and can promote the enlargement of eucalyptus monocultures, an invasive species threatening to exchange the biodiversity of those woods. The distinction between Sabela’s symbolic connection to nature and the aggressiveness of an industrial mannequin like Altri’s displays the environmental and social dilemmas Galicia faces at this time. September thirtieth, 2024

Beyond the Lake explores these dynamics whereas reflecting by myself story. I’m the son of a person who died younger from alcoholism and the grandson of emigrants—three of my grandparents left Galicia, and I lived overseas for 16 years. Many pictures are taken in my very own village and residential, locations that bear witness to generations marked by abandonment and resilience.

The results of local weather change are hitting Southern Europe hardest, notably the Iberian Peninsula. In 2025, reservoir ranges fell 6% in comparison with 2024, and the 12 months earlier than they’d already dropped 15% in comparison with 2023, outlining a sustained downward development. In the Galicia-Costa basin, storage hovers simply above 50%, a important threshold for a area as soon as synonymous with ample rainfall. Galicia, as soon as thought-about a climatic haven, is now not exempt. Rivers just like the Lérez, Támega, and Limia run so low that stretches have gone dry. These crises, as soon as unthinkable, now kind a recurring sample.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, The city of Aceredo, which emerged to gentle after 30 years buried beneath the water of the Lindoso reservoir, is a transparent witness to the results of local weather change and the aggressiveness of man’s hand in the direction of the pure atmosphere. The sight of the village of Aceredo, deserted in time beneath the waters of the reservoir, jogs my memory of the abundance of life in that place, the place the mountains and the river supplied its inhabitants with every little thing they wanted for his or her every day lives. Once the reservoir was lowered and the village of Aceredo got here to gentle, a lot of its former inhabitants returned to see what was as soon as their residence. Some of them, like Domingo Fontán, admit that they want the water within the reservoir had by no means gone down, since seeing the village of their childhood once more solely causes them to scratch a wound whose ache turns into insufferable. December twenty first, 2021. Aceredo, Galicia.

This environmental fragility intersects with deep social scars. By the mid-Twentieth century, 1.2 million Galicians—practically half the inhabitants—had emigrated. Poverty drove this exodus, forsaking loneliness and abandonment. Alcoholism grew to become endemic, compounded by low inhabitants density and weak financial networks, fueling disputes and eroding communal ties. Another defining wound is hearth. Galicia endures one in all Europe’s highest charges of synthetic wildfires, typically linked to disputes, financial pursuits, or political tensions. The summer season of 2025 was the worst in Galicia’s historical past, with hundreds of hectares burned, altering total ecosystems. Fires will not be anomalies however structural issues—cyclical threats that expose the vulnerability of the territory.

Beyond the Lake is rooted in these realities. It portrays a Galicia lengthy uncared for by central authorities, marked by unemployment, emigration, alcoholism, exclusion, disputes over communal land, forest fires, and invasive monocultures. Through a poetic visible language, the venture reveals each seen scars and invisible legacies of local weather change, depopulation, and resilience in one in all Europe’s most fragile landscapes.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Tony used to reach residence with nuts, claiming that his girlfriend, Rosemary, had given them to him. However, Rosemary solely existed in his thoughts. Tony resides in Atas, a small distant village on the border between Galicia and Portugal. He grew up with alcoholic dad and mom and, sadly, grew to become an alcoholic himself. Tony says, “I remember that when I was a child my father would put a glass of wine on the table for me and tell me ‘Drink! A little bit won’t hurt you”. When Tony drinks alcohol he shortly loses management over himself to the purpose of dropping a watch as a result of a automotive accident whereas driving drunk. He presently misplaced his job as a result of his alcoholism and lives on state support and his household’s charity. The despair within the space, the dearth of job alternatives, and the communication difficulties made it much more difficult for him to beat his alcoholism. April, seventh. 2023. Atás, Galicia.

The subsequent stage of Beyond the Lake will unfold over twelve months, alternating fieldwork and modifying whereas sustaining steady analysis. Monitoring local weather indicators, reservoir ranges, drought alerts, and wildfire knowledge will information the method. Fieldwork will comply with a rhythm of two weeks within the territory and one week of modifying and scanning negatives. Material shall be reviewed and sequenced each fifteen days, ideally with the steering of a Vital Impacts mentor, guaranteeing the venture evolves organically in response to environmental realities and group encounters.

In the primary half of the 12 months, pictures will give attention to communities scarred by abandonment, alcoholism, and emigration. Special consideration shall be given to individuals residing within the forest, sustaining the mountains via conventional practices. Their resilience gives a counterpoint to shortage and loss. In parallel, the aftermath of the devastating 2025 wildfires will grow to be a central motif. Winter will doc charred forests, altered ecosystems, and the variation of each individuals and animals. In summer season, new fires shall be photographed to seize the cyclical nature of the risk. Traditional rituals and cultural symbols shall be built-in, connecting modern struggles with ancestral reminiscence.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Apples, practically rotten, relaxation upon the stone of a fountain within the backyard of a home in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia. This picture contrasts with the luxurious vegetation that defines the area, formed by a number of the highest rainfall in Europe: Santiago receives an annual common of 1,573 liters per sq. meter. Yet, Galicia faces the paradox of being a water-rich area devastated by forest fires, which in some years have accounted for as much as 80% of all fires in Spain. This distinction highlights how land administration and rural abandonment impression the stability between pure abundance and environmental disasters. September seventeenth, 2022. Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.

By months 9 and ten, focus will shift to group engagement: returning to villages to share photographs, foster dialogue, and re-record testimonies. Meetings in cultural facilities will create areas for reflection, guaranteeing the venture isn’t solely about Galicia but in addition with Galicia. The closing weeks shall be devoted to modifying with the assist of Vital Impacts, finalizing the photographic sequence for exhibitions and publications. By 12 months’s finish, Beyond the Lake will stand as a whole chronicle of Galicia’s fragile stability between resilience and collapse.

As a scholar of Sociology and a storyteller deeply rooted in Galicia, I consider pictures can each heal and critique. On a private stage, photographing is a type of development; on a social stage, it reveals issues demanding collective reflection. Working with a Vital Impacts mentor would sharpen my imaginative and prescient, make sure the venture meets its targets, and produce worldwide visibility to those ignored territories, doubtlessly sparking dialogue and motion. Beyond the Lake isn’t solely a venture about reminiscence and loss—it’s a name for resilience and transformation.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Maria, a local of a village referred to as Atás, was born in 1929 and had her solely son, Emilio, when she was 26 years outdated. Maria married when she was already pregnant, a scenario frowned upon in rural Galicia at the moment. The poverty of her residence space and the dearth of alternatives led Maria to to migrate to Hanover, Germany, leaving Emilio in his village. She believed that working overseas would supply him with the monetary stability he wanted to reside comfortably. Emilio was raised within the residence of his uncles (Maria’s brothers), who had been alcoholics. This atmosphere ultimately led Emilio to develop alcoholism as properly. Emilio began his circle of relatives, however his struggles with alcohol by no means ceased, finally resulting in his dying at simply 50 years outdated, shortly after Maria completely returned from Germany. Maria separated from her son, pondering she was giving him the most effective by working overseas, but her choice made him really feel like an deserted little one. Emilio grew up feeling misplaced on this planet, believing that his dad and mom had deserted him as a result of they didn’t love him, and he was additional stigmatized for being the product of a premarital conception. When Maria lastly returned to get pleasure from her time along with her son, he handed away as a result of his alcoholism. June sixteenth, 2022. Atás, Galicia.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Teixo is a younger man of simply 20 years. He grew up within the mountains of Negueira de Muñiz, in a home with out electrical energy. Teixo’s father works shearing goats and sheep, and since he was little, Teixo by no means confirmed a lot curiosity in learning. That’s why, as quickly as he turned 15, he began shearing goats alongside his father. Now, at 20 years outdated, he’s sure that his work will all the time be shearing goats. Although it’s a very robust job, Teixo enjoys it as a result of it helps him keep a reference to the animals and strengthens his bond with the land and nature, a bond he’s had since childhood. May seventh, 2024. Cualedro, Galicia.

© Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Adolf and Raul got here from Barcelona to reside in a home in Barcela, an deserted village within the Galician forest, on the foot of the Grandas de Salime reservoir. Locals accused them of desiring to reside there to achieve financial advantages from the communal land, sparking vital disputes between them and the neighbors. One night time, some neighbors tried to set hearth to Adolfo and Raúl’s home whereas they had been inside. To today, Adolfo and Raúl are marginalized from the remainder of the village, they usually have spent nearly 5 years with out virtually leaving their residence. September eleventh, 2023. Barcela, Galicia.

About the Fellowships

Vital Impacts is devoted to supporting visible storytellers who seize compelling, solutions-focused environmental tales on the native stage. We are grateful to have the ability to supply one $20,000 fellowship and 6 $5,000 fellowships to assist deliver these very important tales to life. Fellows have twelve months to develop their tasks, with assist from Vital Impacts to publish and showcase their work.

“Our aim is to support and nurture the next generation of environmental storytellers through grants and mentoring programs,” stated founder Ami Vitale “We aspire to create opportunities for these emerging voices to explore complex environmental issues with originality and nuance at this critical moment.” 

The 2026 Mentorship Recipients

In addition to the grants, ten rising photographers from numerous areas will take part in an intensive mentorship program designed to reinforce their storytelling expertise and inventive imaginative and prescient.

Over the span of twelve months, these people could have the chance to have interaction in one-on-one periods with trade consultants, famend photographers, and influential picture editors. Through these periods, individuals will refine their storytelling expertise, obtain steering on navigating the trade, and set up very important connections.

About Vital Impacts

Over the previous fifty years, Earth’s wildlife populations have declined by practically three-quarters, a profound shift that challenges us to rethink how we look after the pure world. Yet even within the face of those losses, there’s extraordinary purpose for hope. Around the planet, communities, scientists, and storytellers are working collectively to reimagine options, restore ecosystems, and shield the locations all of us rely on.

Vital Impacts is a women-led 501c3 non-profit based in 2021 by Ami Vitale and Eileen Mignoni to advance conservation via visible storytelling, group partnership, and strategic funding in native options. We harness the ability of artwork, visible journalism, and group partnerships to assist conservation and illuminate pathways towards a extra resilient future. Central to our work is investing in storytellers. More than 1,000 journalists throughout 87 international locations have obtained mentorship via our applications, gaining the instruments and assist to report on environmental points with depth, sensitivity, and solutions-driven focus. Their tales deliver world visibility to native challenges and to the individuals working creatively to unravel them.

This storytelling community is paired with deep group engagement. Through partnerships, Vital Impacts has raised $3.5 million for native conservation initiatives. These sources assist safeguard important ecosystems, assist community-led conservation, and be certain that these working closest to the land have the assist they should succeed.

We are additionally cultivating the subsequent era of environmental stewards. Our in-person scholar applications have reached 30,000 younger individuals, inviting them to see themselves as lively individuals in shaping a more healthy, extra compassionate world. By connecting college students with highly effective tales and the individuals behind them, we spark curiosity, company, and a lifelong dedication to caring for the planet.

At the guts of Vital Impacts is the idea that tales rework understanding and that understanding drives motion. By elevating native voices, bridging science and narrative, and directing sources the place they create lasting change, we’re constructing a world group of people that acknowledge that restoring the planet isn’t solely potential however already underway.

Instagram: @very important.impacts

Executive Director: Ami Vitale

Ami Vitale is a National Geographic Explorer at Large, award-winning photographer, author, documentary filmmaker, and the founding father of Vital Impacts. Her work explores the very important connections between individuals, wildlife, and the planet. With practically three many years of expertise working in over 100 international locations, Ami makes use of storytelling as a device for conservation, empathy, and motion.

Her profession started in battle zones, the place she witnessed firsthand how environmental degradation—together with useful resource shortage, displacement, and local weather instability—profoundly impacts human lives. These early experiences formed her conviction that environmental and social points are inseparable, guiding her towards long-term, solutions-focused work that highlights resilience, collaboration, and chance.

Her work has been acknowledged with quite a few honors, together with Conservation International’s Lui-Walton Innovators Fellowship, the Lucie Humanitarian Award, the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service, the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, and 6 World Press Photo awards. She is an honorary fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and an inductee into the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame.

Through each her nonprofit management and her personal artistic work, she stays deeply dedicated to empowering rising voices and advancing a extra hopeful, solutions-driven future for our planet.

Instagram: @amivitale