A long-time collaborator and friend of the journalist Dom Phillips, Nicoló Lanfranchi was due to travel with him and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira on the Amazon research trip that led to their murders. At the last minute, plans were changed.
Inspired by the work of Phillips and Pereira, Lanfranchi completed this project with the Asháninka people of Apiwtxa as an example of how ancestral knowledge and modernity can coexist in harmony: a true model for a sustainable future
I met Dom through my Indigenous friend, the environmental activist Davilson Brasileiro, with whom I investigated the 2015 Rio Doce disaster. Thanks to Davilson, Dom discovered my work, and we began collaborating on the stories he wrote for the Guardian. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, which we often celebrated by surfing together and cooking Italian recipes.
We met for the last time in Rio de Janeiro just before the [coronavirus pandemic] lockdown, to surf at Arpoador beach in Ipanema. We then worked together again, albeit from a distance, for some pieces on Covid-19 in Rio.
In the two years that followed, Dom concentrated on the book he was writing, and on research trips to the Amazon. We talked often, though far apart, about our common passion for music, about life, and made plans for when Covid would pass. We thought about how I could contribute to Dom’s book with my photos, and he asked me to accompany him on [what would be] his last trip, to Brazil’s Javari valley.
Mist over the Amônia River at sunrise. The Asháninka village of Apiwtxa was established in the area in 1993
