Joao Luiz Bulcao

João Luiz Bulcão is a Brazilian-French documentary photographer based in Paris.
For more than three decades, his work has explored the relationship between people, territory and identity, focusing on environmental issues, popular culture and the ways communities shape and reinvent their everyday landscapes.
He began his career as a photojournalist with Manchete magazine before becoming the Brazilian correspondent for Gamma in 1990. In 1992, he joined Veja, Brazil's leading weekly news magazine. Seeking greater editorial independence, he left staff journalism in 1993 to pursue long-term documentary projects.
After working with Gamma Liaison in New York, Bulcão settled in Paris in 1997, where he
collaborated with Gamma Press and later Corbis before becoming an independent photographer.  The Amazon has remained at the heart of his work for more than thirty-five years. Through over twenty expeditions across the region, he has documented Indigenous peoples, rubber tappers, river communities and traditional populations living at the frontline of environmental change. His photographs were recently featured in Guardians of the Amazon, a major outdoor exhibition presented on the Champs-Élysées and at the Hôtel de Ville during the 2025 France-Brazil Season.