“Pandora,” by Brazilian photographer and geographer Márcio Cabral, shows the Milky Way arching over native Cerrado flowers in Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goiás. (Foto: Instagram)
Brazilian photographer and geographer Márcio Cabral won the Global Grand Prize at the 17th Green Storm Photography Festival for “Pandora,” a photograph of the Milky Way arching over native Cerrado flowers in Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goiás. The festival is an international environmental photography competition.
The image was chosen from 14,513 submissions by artists in 177 countries. The award was presented Aug. 20 during the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, known as COP17, in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
Cabral took the photograph in 2023 at Jardim de Maytreia, a well-known location in Chapada dos Veadeiros, in the municipality of Alto Paraíso de Goiás. The project behind it began in 2014, when he started experimenting with ways to combine images of local plant life with photographs of the night sky. Getting the shot required the Milky Way to be properly aligned, a clear and windless night, and a period when the flowers were in full bloom.
“Pandora” combines nine long-exposure photographs into a 180-degree panorama. Special lighting highlighted the flowers without diminishing the brightness of the stars, creating the visual effect that inspired the title, a reference to the world of the film “Avatar.” Cabral has said he wants his work to reveal landscapes and species that can go unnoticed and raise awareness of threats to the Cerrado.
The photograph has also received recognition at other international competitions. According to Cabral, it won the Oasis Photo Contest in Italy and The Nature Photography Contest in Spain, received awards in England, and was featured in the scientific journal Nature. He also said “Pandora” is the only photograph by a Brazilian artist selected for a special National Geographic book featuring 200 of the organization’s best photographs of all time.
