Part II, ‘Reaching high’ Kadir van Lohuizen | NOOR
In part two of his Via PanAm project – a personal mission to travel the Pan-American Highway from Chile to Alaska – photojournalist and Nikon user Kadir van Lohuizen describes his journey to the salt lakes and lithium mines of Bolivia.
Although officially the Pan-American Highway doesn’t pass through Bolivia, I think the country is too interesting not to include in the ViaPanam project. It is a country with a high level of internal migration and a population that is 80% indigenous. Bolivia is also home to the first indigenous president in Latin America, Evo Morales. I’ve visited the country before and knew these points made this country a stop I wanted to include in my project.
During my travels, I discovered there is a train running from Calama in the Chilean Atacama desert to Uyuni, in the south of Bolivia. However, when I arrive in Calama I receive conflicting reports; some locals say the train goes to Uyuni, some say it doesn’t. I find out the hard way that it doesn’t and realise the bus has taken over as the fastest mode of transport (as it seems to be in almost every country in Latin America).
On the bus, I really experience the steep climb up to the Bolivian altiplano, where the border is at nearly 5000 meters above sea level. The views are stunning, but the air is becoming thinner and thinner and I feel a slight headache coming on. I promised myself I would do this project overland, the idea being that I would make contact with people on the road and learn about the lives of locals and hear their stories.
For this project on migration, I also wanted to understand the distances that people here travel, but road conditions can be tough and the distances long. It is difficult traveling, but the light in the bus is striking, so it looks like I’ll get a pretty decent image out of this bus trip!
Image taken with a Nikon D700, Lens: 17-35 f2.8 at 35mm f4.5, 1/3200, ISO 800
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
I have been on the road now for a while and my equipment (the Nikon D3s, D700 and my COOLPIX P7000), has never failed me. Over the coming months as I pass through a number of new countries, I’ll continue to put them to the test with very high altitudes, extreme temperature differences and most of all very, very dusty environments.
Before this project began, I researched the countries I would visit so I had a rough idea of the two to three migration stories per country I wanted to cover (while still leaving room for the unexpected!).
One story I wanted to cover in Bolivia was the ‘Salar de Uyuni’, the biggest salt lake in the world. The scenery is amazing, but the real story is the recently discovered lithium reserves. Lithium you say? Yes the fuel for most batteries nowadays and most of all the future for cars; electrical cars! So as some say, Bolivia could become the new Kuwait of the world if they do it right.
Image taken with a Nikon D700, Lens at 30mm f4.5, 1/2500, ISO 200
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
The first pilot mine has now been opened, but the biggest question I have is how to get there and how to get in. Not only is it difficult to reach, as the mine is in the middle of the lake, but it is also a restricted area. As it turns out I am lucky, my fixer, Daniel Caballero, is the personal photographer of the Bolivian president so he has an extensive network and with a phone call to the Ministry of Mines, the visit is secured.
I have no idea what to expect. A lithium mine – what would it look like? On the way there the views are magical: one example is seen in the image below – an island seems to float in the sky.
Taken with a Nikon D3S, Lens: 105 mm f2.8, 1/1600 at f11, ISO 200
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
It’s clear that it has rained – a lot. Where the Salar should be dry, it’s still covered with water and that is where the mines are. The surface is covered in half a meter of water, so walking across the plain isn’t an option – besides it would be at least a four hour walk!
Being a photographer requires a good eye and a sense of what a good story is, but also a dose of luck. Access is everything, so if you have researched a story well you know what you’re talking about, and that makes it a lot easier to get access into places other people sometimes cannot. To have a contact that can put you in touch with the right person is gold. Sometimes you can just walk in somewhere, but all too often you can’t and you will need someone to help.
Obviously this can cost money because of the fees for your fixer / translator, but in almost all circumstances your fee will be “returned” to you because the images you’ll be able to capture from the restricted access points will be well worth it.
Although I have only two weeks in Bolivia, I still have two more migration stories that I would like to cover and the next stop that will help with this is Siglo XX, the tin mines, located at an altitude of 4500 meters above sea level.
I was there four years ago so am familiar with the area. In that sense ideas just don’t come out of the blue. They crystallize because you read something (I follow news and background stories constantly) or you have been, like in this case, there before. The mines officially closed in the ‘80s, but due to the high price of tin and worldwide demand, it’s a magnet for people from all over Bolivia to come and work here. When I arrive, I realize one thing – if I want to do this story I have to go in with the miners.
Taken with a Nikon D700, Lens: 17-35 mm f2.8 at 19mm, f2.8, ISO 6400
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
To be honest, it’s scary; since the mine closed there is no upkeep or standards that need to be maintained for the tunnels themselves. As a result, tunnels have collapsed and there is hardly any light, except the one on my helmet. It first gets cold, very cold and then the temperature goes up to 45 degrees! It’s also incredibly damp and I‘m starting to worry for my cameras, they look like they are being soaked in water and the lenses are like looking through thick fog, but they keep on working. Incredibly, I don’t need to make any unusual adjustments to the equipment to get the photos I want.
The heat kills me, but the lack of oxygen is frightening and one thing is for sure: the tunnels were not built for a two meter tall Dutchman… I’ve never been so happy to see daylight after so many hours!!
Taken with a Nikon COOLPIX P7000, Lens at 6 mm 1/11.2 f3.5, ISO 1600
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
The last migration story I want to cover while in Bolivia is about the coca farmers. An interesting topic because the Bolivian president Evo Morales himself was a coca farmer. Since in power he has changed policies to allow people to grow coca for personal use and small sales (for example tea) – both of which were previously illegal. The president’s reasoning for the allowance is that coca has been there for so long and has always been used for medicine, tea or to as some people prefer, chew.
The working environment changes dramatically from those in the mines. I leave the ‘altiplano’ and find myself in the jungle. It rains, not just a few hours, but for three consecutive days, exactly the time I have to shoot the story. I have shot in the rain before, but the problem this time is that the farmers don’t pick coca when it rains, because they can’t dry the leaves. I need this image of a farmer picking for the story; otherwise I miss a crucial element.
Taken with a Nikon D3S, Lens: 50mm f1.4 at f2.8, 1/800, ISO 400
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
On the last very last day I get lucky – I find a family who are picking even when it rains, otherwise their plants and leaves will be too old. Rain is not nice to shoot in, but you can also use it in your story. It’s also not good for the cameras, but with the sealing that is installed on the new cameras I have a lot less to worry about. Keeping my lenses dry is the biggest effort I have to make and being able to photograph this family is a great way to end my travels in Bolivia.
Taken with a Nikon D3S, Lens: 50mm f1.4, at f5, 1/32o, ISO 400
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
My next destination will be Peru: a large, hugely diverse country. At the moment, I’m researching to make sure I find a good balance in the stories I want to tell. One story is on the environment and the other will hopefully be on two families living in the North of Peru and will show the two Peruvian domestic workers I portrayed in Santiago where they live and work.
The tough cookie that is Colombia is lingering too. I have been there three times in in the past, covering the internal conflict and fighting between guerillas, government and paramilitary groups, so I know what I am getting into. It will be a very important chapter in my project since Colombia has the highest number of internal refugees in the world: forced migration in this case.”
Kadir van Lohuizen, is an internationally acclaimed, award winning photo-journalist committed to capturing the struggles people face around the world each day and recording what would normally go unreported. To help raise awareness of the issues he documents, Kadir has co-founded NOOR, an international non-profit photo agency which provides a visual history of mankind and in doing so, aims to educate people about the world they live in.
Kadir’s Via PanAm project is 10-month, 15-country trip looking at migration in the Americas, and the role it has played in climate change, war and conflict, and economical issues. Make sure you continue to check the blog for updates from his epic journey, featuring still images and videos from this fascinating project.
Read part one of Kadir’s blog post here as he starts his trip from Puerto Toro located on Isla Navarino, just north of Cape Horn.
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