ED KASHI | Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta (2004) | Photography
Prix Pictet is a new annual photography award (CHF 100,000) that promotes photographic excellence and environmental sustainability. Last year’s theme was Water, and this year’s theme is Earth. Award-winning contemporary sociopolitical photographer, Ed Kashi, has been shortlisted in Prix Pictet 2009. Kashi’s series documents the environmental and humanitarian challenge as a result of oil in the Niger Delta. It is a complex problem including the repressive and corrupt governments in Nigeria being supported and maintained by western governments and oil corporations, keen on benefitting from the fossil fuels that can be exploited. Kashi goes to great extents to bring forward the truth, during an assignment for National Geographic in 2006, Kashi and his guide were detained for 4 days and then released without charges for photographing an oil facility in Bayelsa State. Among the many excellent finalists this year, Kashi’s work is the strongest in terms of strorytelling and evoking emotion and has an excellent chance of winning the award.
