Pia Parolin

Dr. Pia Parolin (born 24 August 1965 in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy) is a biologist and tropical ecologist, council member of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö) and active member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC). She is also a photographer, member of the German Society for Photography (DGPh) and Leica Akademie Deutschland. ^[1]

Career

Her scientific work is focussed on tropical forests and wetlands, mainly the Amazon River floodplains and the Pantanal. She holds a PhD in tropical ecology, biological conservation and climate change. Her work was based at the Max-Planck-Institute for Limnology (Germany) and the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus - INPA (Brazil). She was later based at the Université Côte d'Azur (France) and Institut Sophia Agrobiotech (INRAe) (France). Today, she is based at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (Germany).

She is also a photographer and book author. She has published several books on photography and biology. She gives workshops and talks at festivals and conferences. She is a renown street photographer and member of Collectif Photon, Nice and Optic Nerve Street Collective. She was convened to the German Society for Photography (DGPh) in 2021 and to the Leica Akademie Deutschland in 2024.

Projects and artistic statements

Having worked all her life in wetlands and with people and water, she started documentary work by merging her two professions and passions: ecology and photography. The documentation of environmental changes with scientific data complements well with the emotional visualization through her photographs. Her aim is to illuminate the fragile connection between humans and nature in a variety of ways, and to stimulate thought. She created the project Water People Stories to explore the importance of water in our daily life. She tells the stories of people whom she encounters along her journeys around the world. The aim is to understand and transform how societies see, value and impact freshwater in rivers and wetlands. The project was launched in 2023 at the BioClim-Wetlands Conference in Bonn, Germany. It was later shown in Lisbon, Portugal, at the conference of the Society for Tropical Ecology, in Càceres, Brazil, at the Instituto Gaia and the University of Cuiabá, Brazil.

Another important project is Promenade Moments, her reply to the terror attack that occurred in Nice on July 14, 2016. This series shows "ephemerid encounters of people passing by, instants of joy and relax for family and friends. Tourists enjoy the spectacular colours that even the rain cannot delete. Soldiers have become part of the promenade where children play happily. People stop to look into the infinity of the blue sea. Moments and movements surround us in a place where the evil tried to take grip, but the freedom of everyday life full of ease and light prevail." Her photographs and conceptual work are exhibited worldwide. She shares her thoughts and knowledge in numerous books and lectures.