Sofía López Mañán

Sofía López Mañán

Natalia, a tiger at the now-closed Luján Zoo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2019. The zoo’s owner believed that raising big cats in close contact with humans could tame them, and to demonstrate this, he would release Natalia inside a house and let her move freely.

This photograph is part of A Book of Nature, a decade-long project examining how the idea of ‘Nature’ is constructed and how this shapes our relationship with ecology and coexistence.

Sofía López Mañán is an Argentinian artist, photographer, filmmaker, and naturalist whose work explores the delicate, often surprising relationships between humans and the environment. Moving seamlessly between photography, film, archival research, performance, and speculative storytelling, she questions anthropocentric narratives and examines how our ideas of nature, identity, and interspecies connection shape the way we see and inhabit the world.

Her long-term project, A Book of Nature (to be published by Sed Editorial in 2025), was part of the Joop Swart Masterclass (2019) and recognized by POY Latam, PhMuseum, and Sony. Supported by production grants from National Geographic, the Pulitzer Center, the Ami Vitale Documentary Grant, and Journalism Fund Europe, she has developed environmental projects across Latin America that merge rigorous research with poetic storytelling.

Her work has been exhibited in national and international galleries and art fairs, and published in major media outlets such as The New York Times Magazine, Vice, Stern, El País, and Gatopardo.

Her debut feature documentary, Kamatsu’s Odyssey, premiered in the International Competition at BAFICI 2024 and went on to screen at festivals worldwide.