The Milky Way arches over native Cerrado flowers in “Pandora,” Márcio Cabral’s award-winning photograph taken 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 above native Cerrado flowers in Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goiás. The image was selected from 14,513 entries submitted by artists from 177 countries.
The award was presented Aug. 20 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, during the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, known as COP17. Cabral made the photograph in 2023 at Maytreia Garden, a well-known location in Chapada dos Veadeiros, near Alto Paraíso de Goiás.
The project began years earlier. In 2014, Cabral started experimenting with ways to combine images of local plant life with photographs of the night sky. To create “Pandora,” he waited for the Milky Way to align with the scene, for a clear, windless night, and for the flowers to reach a period of intense bloom. The finished image combines nine long-exposure photographs into a 180-degree panorama.
Special lighting brought out the flowers while preserving the brightness of the stars. The visual effect helped inspire the title “Pandora,” a reference to the world of the film “Avatar.” Cabral has said his work aims to reveal landscapes and species that may go unnoticed and to increase awareness of the threats facing the Cerrado.
The international recognition also draws attention to Chapada dos Veadeiros as a natural heritage site and to the biodiversity of Goiás. “Pandora” had previously won the Oasis Photo Contest in Italy and The Nature Photography Contest in Spain, as well as other awards in England. It was also featured in the scientific journal Nature. According to Cabral, it is the only photograph by a Brazilian author selected for a special National Geographic book featuring the institution’s 200 best photographs of all time.
