December 2012: as we near the end of its 5,200 year cycle, the Mayan calendar has inspired many to believe the end of the world is nigh. Everywhere new « prophets » are on the rise. But what do modern-day Mayans think about this prophecy? This article is a field survey into the 2012 phenomenon.

Photos by Eliane Beeson/LightMediation Text by Caroline Chapeaux

For more Pictures and Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

Heralded as the « King River of French Guiana », the Maroni courses through a land of adventure. Secret African traditions, gold mining fever and the struggle to survive, all simmer underneath the canopy of the emerald Amazon and an illusory French flag. The law of the forest prevails in this unknown wilderness.

Photos by Remi Benali/LightMediation Text by Heather Robinson

For more Pictures or Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

Sacred water on the verge of extinction

In January 2009, the National Institute of Natural Resources in Peru stated that the Quilca glacier, located at an altitude of 5,250 metres in the region of Puno, had completely disappeared. The agency believes that because of global warming all of Peru’s 2000 glaciers are destined to totally melt by 2025.

A Photo story by Andrew McLeish / LightMediation

For more Pictures or Inforamations please contact – Thierry Tinacci -LightMediation Photo Agency – +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 email:thierry[AT]lightmediation.com

In Belém, Professor Giorgio Venturieri has been studying these pollinators of plants for 20 years. In the Embrapa laboratories, the Brazilian equivalent of the National Institute for Agronomic Research, Giorgio is seeking to domesticate the plants and animals of the Amazon to use them in agriculture.

Photos by Eric Tourneret/LightMediation Text by Sylla de Saint Pierre

Fpr more Pictures or Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

To fight against the clandestine gold diggers who pullulate and pollute the Amazon forest, the civil authorities and military have just launched the more immense operation ever organized in France. Under the leadership of gendarmes, legionaries and marsouins track the garimpeiros in the heart of the jungle. During ten days, our reporters accompanied them.

Photos and text by Jose Nicolas and Christophe Gautier/LightMediation

For more Pictures or Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

Almost 20 years ago, the American continent was celebrating the discovery of their continent with great pride.
Armed only with statements, slogans and passion against a conquest and colonisation they rejected in bulk, Amerindians of both North and South of the continent shouted their frustration at once, a scream that reached each and single one protest movement of today’s population ready for a comeback.

Photos by David Ducoin/LightMediation Text by Julie Baudin

For more Pictures or Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

In the penitentiary center of San Pedro, in Bolivia, 1600 prisoners live with their family and possess the keys of their cell, without that the administration finds there to criticize. This small community works as an independent society, with its rules, its economy, its justice and even its political process.

a Photo report by Bruno Fert/LightMediation Agency

For more Pictures or Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

For the Coras, a small indigenous people that inhabit the rugged canyons of the Sierra del Nayar on the the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Judea Cora, the less known Holy Week of Mexico, is the most important religious ceremony of the year.

Photos and text by Enrico Martino/LightMediation

Contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

Favelas are slowly coming back to legality. Drug dealers are leaving the place, and a new daily life is appearing. Small shops, bars, but also sports and art takes place in the new scenery..Just near beaches for billionaires,the favelas are a forbidden and dangerous world. Forbidden? Not necessarily. Dangerous? It depends. The key is the respect.

a Photo report by Olivier Goujon/LightMediation

For more Pictures and Informations please contact – Thierry Tinacci – LightMediation Photo Agency – email: thierry[AT]lightmediation.com – mobile: +33.6.61.80.57.21

Sacred water on the verge of extinction
In January 2009, the National Institute of Natural Resources in Peru stated that the Quilca glacier, located at an altitude of 5,250 metres in the region of Puno, had completely disappeared. The agency believes that because of global warming all of Peru’s 2000 glaciers are destined to totally melt by 2025.

A Photo story by Andrew McLeish / LightMediation

Contact – Thierry Tinacci -LightMediation Photo Agency – +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 email:thierry[AT]lightmediation.com