Crude Reflections


  • Photographer
    Kayana Szymczak
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    freelance
  • Date of Photograph
    March 2006

From 1964 to 1992 Texaco oil corporation, now part of Chevron, built and operated oil production facilities in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. When the company arrived, the region was pristine rainforest inhabited by traditional indigenous communities. Nearly three decades later, a vast area had been environmentally devastated, the toxic contamination estimated to be roughly 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. Dozens of communities suffer severe health effects including unprecedented and surging rates of cancer, skin ailments, and birth defects. Indigenous communities have been dispossessed of their traditional homelands, and more than 2 million acres of ancient rainforests have been leveled.

Story

From 1964 to 1992 Texaco oil corporation, now part of Chevron, built and operated oil production facilities in the northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. When the company arrived, the region was pristine rainforest inhabited by traditional indigenous communities. Nearly three decades later, a vast area had been environmentally devastated, the toxic contamination estimated to be roughly 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. Dozens of communities suffer severe health effects including unprecedented and surging rates of cancer, skin ailments, and birth defects. Indigenous communities have been dispossessed of their traditional homelands, and more than 2 million acres of ancient rainforests have been leveled.

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