Julia PontesJúlia Pontés is a visual artist, photographer, researcher, and activist based between São Paulo and New York. She is currently a Columbia University Visual Arts MFA Candidate. She holds an LLM in Law and Economics with her research focused on the economic analysis of Brazilian mining legislation. Júlia is a member of a group of Brazilian scholars and researchers studying mining impacts in the country. In 2015, she graduated from the International Center of Photography, and she has been chosen twice for the Emerging Immigrant Artist Program by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her aerial mining survey, done mostly in her home state of Minas Gerais, has been recognized by Harvard University's Planetary Health Alliance. Images from it have been published worldwide by Bloomberg, Bloomberg Businessweek, Geo Magazine, and many more, as well as in Brazil by Globo’s G1 portal, Plurale, O Tempo, Estado de Minas, and Folha de São Paulo. Her work is shown in collaboration with social movements, universities, and independent exhibition spaces to raise awareness on the impact of mining in Brazil.