Hi, I’m Sergio.

I'm a journalist, illustrator and graphic designer. Scroll for visual stories.
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Digital

Chasing the Ghosts of Benghazi
When Americans hear Benghazi, many recall the mob attack in 2012 that killed an ambassador. But that’s when the real fight began.

Design|Visual storytelling|Script

A Tidal Wave of Mud
A mining dam collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, and buried more than 150 people. Now the country is casting an anxious eye on dozens of dams like it.

Maps|Reporting

How a Garden for the Poor Became a Playground for the Rich
For 30 years, the backyard behind the Thelma Burdick building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side was an oasis of open space for the low-income tenants who lived there. But the space was replaced by a chic hotel.

Design|Visual storytelling|Reporting

Underground Lives: The Sunless World of Immigrants in Queens
New York City welcomes poor immigrants, but its housing does not. Most rents are far beyond the means of people like Amado, who arrive looking for a better life or to make money to send back home.

Design|Visual storytelling|Reporting

Stop for a minute. These space images are worth your time.
Everything we're learning with the Webb telescope is mind-boggling. If nothing else, the humongousness of the universe ought to put our problems into perspective.

Writing|Visual storytelling

You — yes, you! — can help the planet. Start in your backyard.
Perhaps the simplest, most tangible and effective action we can take to help the planet is to restore whatever part of the environment we control with native plants.

Reporting|Illustration

The fable of Trumpocchio: How Trump won the election that he lost
Once upon a time, there was a president who lied too much. His name was Trumpocchio.

Illustration|Commentary

Walking in War’s Path
For residents of Israel and Gaza, routine paths are full of reminders of last summer’s war.

Design|Visual storytelling|Script

One million of us
The pandemic’s reported death toll has surpassed 1 million people in the United States. Behind each number, one of us.

Reporting|Data visualization

What I Saw in Syria
A reporter’s photographs and cellphone videos from a road trip in one of the world’s most violent war zones became the first of a series of first person tap stories pionereed by The Times.

Design|Visual editing|Script

Syria After Four Years of Mayhem
A four-year conflict has dismembered Syria, inflaming the region with one of the world’s worst religious and sectarian wars.

Reporting|Visual editing|Design

Brazilians Erupt After Their First Word Cup Goal
In many countries, soccer is a sport and the World Cup is a competition. Not for Brazilians.

Producing|Visual editing

Words and Pictures

Lessons from the confinement, for Absurd America, the Washington Post.

Read "Lessons from the confinement" at the Washington Post.

A viral love affair, for the Washington Post.

Read "A viral love affair" at the Washington Post.

Congrats! You dump 100 plastic bottles in nature each year, for The Washington Post. More here.

Brexit, for The New York Times. More here.

China is winning

For years, the United States thought that China was a problem that would take care of itself.

But China is rewriting its own script.

The country still restricts civil liberties.

But its economy is booming.

China is willing to do business in risky places, where nobody else will.

The country has remarkably improved social mobility, and has lifted more people out of poverty than any other country in history.

It has also accomplished major feats of engineering.

But shown little regard for environmental regulations.

And it is still trying to master very complex technology.

Is China winning?

For The New York Times (some were not used).

See the whole project here, I helped to edit some of the graphics too.

Violence in videogames, for The New York Times.

Types of police approach.

Egyptian Revolution (left); Church-State separation.

Osama bin Laden.

Icon family for The Dallas Morning News.

Print

About

I'm Sergio Peçanha. I'm a visual journalist at the Washington Post and the author of Absurd America.

Shoot me a note. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Before joining The Washington Post, I was a graphics editor for The New York Times from 2008 to 2019. Before that, I was at the Dallas Morning News. And, way before that, I was born, in Rio. Many pieces here have multiple bylines and could not have been done without some great people. See more of my work for the Post and for the Times.