Alén do Lago is rooted in Galicia and along the border with northern Portugal, a territory where reality and legend coexist, and where social and environmental transformations intertwine with individual stories. Through experiences shaped by migration, abandonment, alcoholism and the gradual decline of rural life, the project explores a region that is now confronting depopulation, climate change and the growing fragility of its communities.

The project has a deeply autobiographical dimension. Many of its protagonists belong to the artist’s family and close circle: his father, his grandparents and friends from his village. Carlos Folgoso Sueiro himself spent many years away from Galicia, sharing some of the experiences that run through the project.

By weaving together personal memory, social realities, local legends and myths, Alén do Lago unfolds as a visual journey in which the landscape becomes a reflection of a community in transition and of a lasting search for belonging, resilience and identity.

arlos Folgoso Sueiro’s work has been published by National Geographic, GEO, Stern, Vanity Fair, The Sunday Times, Der Spiegel, L’Espresso, D Repubblica, The British Journal of Photography and Paris Match. His photographs have been exhibited at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York, PhotoEspaña at the Real Jardín Botánico, and Canal Isabel II in Madrid.

Throughout his career, he has received numerous international awards and recognitions, including two Pictures of the Year, i Sony World Photography Awards, the Marco Pesaresi Award, i LensCulture Critics’ Choice Awards and the Premio Galicia de Fotografía Contemporánea.

In 2020, he initiated Alén do Lago, a project dedicated to Galicia through which he explores the atmosphere and identity of his homeland. For The Shining Land , he travelled through remote regions of the Russian Far East, while World’s Place Apart, initiated in 2005 and still ongoing, is devoted to a community that has chosen to live on the margins of contemporary society.

For more than a decade, he combined his personal practice with work as a photojournalist, documenting major events and social transformations across a range of international contexts.