Slide Show

At Look3, Brazil’s Dams Submerge Tribal Life

Credit Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Boreal Collective

Slide Show

At Look3, Brazil’s Dams Submerge Tribal Life

Credit Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Boreal Collective

Brazil’s Dams Submerge Tribal Life

When Aaron Vincent Elkaim reached the Xingu River basin in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest in 2014, he found a lush and humid green expanse that made him feel as if he were infinitesimally small, living “inside a single giant organism.” The region is one of the world’s most biologically and ethnically diverse areas, home to about 25,000 indigenous people, many of whom live as their ancestors did in close relationship to the land.

“It was eye-opening to see what it’s like to live in a mostly preindustrial world where people live off of the environment and are mostly content with work, family and a traditional identity connected to the land,” he said

It is a way of life under threat.

The Belo Monte dam, under construction on the Xingu, will soon be the third-largest hydroelectric complex in the world in terms of output. When completed, it will provide energy for Brazil’s urban boom and fuel further industrialization of the Amazon basin. The Belo Monte is just one of scores of dams that the government has planned for the rivers of the Amazon rain forest to propel the growth of Brazil’s economy.

Photo
Munduruku women bathing and doing laundry in a creek by the village of Sawre Muybu. Dec. 15, 2014.Credit Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Boreal Collective

Although plans for the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex started in 1975, construction was delayed until 2011 because of fierce and persistent protests by several of the region’s 16 indigenous tribes. The original project was changed so that tribal lands would not be directly flooded. But nearby forests where they hunted would be submerged, and the dam will most likely affect water levels and drinkability, transportation and fishing.

Many Brazilians whose family roots in the area date to a century ago, when it had a booming rubber industry, are also affected. They mostly live off the land and still depend on fishing and tapping their own rubber trees.

The story of the dam and its effects on the environment result in the kind of slow, subtle photo essay that is expensive to do and hard to fund. Mr. Elkaim recently received a $20,000 Alexia Foundation grant, which will enable him to pursue the story for the next year.

His rain forest images will be displayed at the Look3 Photo Festival in Charlottesvile, Va., from June 13 to 19 as a part of an exhibit celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Alexia Foundation. Curated by Mike Davis, the exhibit will also include Mary Calvert’s work on homeless female veterans who have survived sexual trauma in the military.

Look3 began as an annual backyard party of photographers started by Michael Nichols, known as Nick, in 1988 in Berkeley, Calif. By 2005, he had 500 people at his home in Charlottesville. Look3 became a full-blown festival in 2007.

This year’s exhibits also include work by Nick Brandt, Graciela Iturbide, Yuri Kozyrev and Frans Lanting as well as Olivia Bee, Sheila Pree Bright, Binh Danh and Radcliffe Roye, known as Ruddy. The festival also includes two daylong seminars for emerging and midcareer photographers.

Photo
A Xikrin warrior being painted in the village of Pot crô. The Xikrin are a part of the Kayapo tribe who have strongly resisted the Belo Monte dam for decades. Feb. 19, 2014. Credit Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Boreal Collective

Mr. Elkaim is based in Toronto and is a founding member of the Boreal photo collective. His previous project, “Sleeping With the Devil,” on the Fort McKay First Nation people, whose fate has become tied to the Athabasca oil sands, was published on Lens in 2012. It explored what is lost, and what is gained, when traditional cultures embrace modern materialism.

Even before the Belo Monte dam project, the surrounding area had been severely damaged by the clearing of forests by outsiders for cattle grazing.

While the tribal protests helped change the original plan for the hydroelectric complex, a new dam is planned nearby on the Tapajós River. Mr. Elkaim recently spent time there with the Munduruku tribe, who are fighting to stop that dam. They have recently delayed construction by getting their territory officially recognized by the government as indigenous land.

When Mr. Elkaim returned to the area around the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex earlier this year, even those people still protesting seemed resigned to the dam’s impending effects on their environment and way of life.

While this story may be too nuanced — and remote — to inspire headlines in North America, Mr. Elkaim says he thinks it is critical because it is typical of what he sees as the “gutting” of ecosystems around the world.

“We have to protect the people whose entire way of life, identity and culture are dependent upon these ecosystems,” he said. “If we protect their way of life, they will protect the environment around them.”

James Estrin, the co-editor of Lens, will be participating in the educational programs on June 15 at the Look3 festival.


Follow @jamesestrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. James Estrin is also on Instagram. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram.

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