NIKON BLOG ‘VIA PANAM’

PART III – A bomb in the jungle, Kadir van Lohuizen | NOOR

In part three 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 details his journey through the Peruvian jungles and into the gold mining towns.

The Peruvian Amazon comprises of endless stretches of uninhibited jungle and is therefore a great tourist destination. Unfortunately this is not the reason for me to be here this time. After some research I discovered that the Amazon houses 40,000 (!) illegal goldminers from all over Peru and even Brazil, who are turning the forest upside down in a mad search for gold.

I have been warned that it is a difficult and dangerous story to cover and since most of the workers are illegal, my presence is not appreciated by everyone.

The key for access and safety is to work with someone who is local, so in addition to my fixer from Lima, a local journalist is willing to accompany us. The journalist is a much needed addition for many reasons, one of which is being able to show us the way! No map indicates any of the mines or mining towns.

I have only one day to shoot the story and I have been told not to mention I am a photographer. I therefore try to keep a very low profile, which is difficult as I am almost almost two metres tall. When asked, I mention I am a ‘student’. ‘He is 25 years old’, says my fixer, and people seem to believe this strangely enough.

I leave my camera bag and just take my D700 with one lens, the 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S NIKKOR, in a small daypack. I rarely use any tele lens, which forces me to come close and make contact with people. It makes it tough sometimes, but usually pays off because the images have much more intensity.

I am nervous, as this has to work out: seeing the mines from a distance is obviously not good enough. I spend the day driving around shooting from the car, which is far from perfect. I find shooting photos from a car is best if you are in control and can tell the driver to stop for the shots you want. But, if this is not possible, what will generally work is a high shutter speed and a wide aperture. Luckily, I can tell the driver to slow down for the photos I want: a good thing considering the road is the riverbed!

In late afternoon I arrive in Delta I, a mining town. Six years ago this place consisted of six huts, now the noise of generators is deafening. A motorcycle takes me into the jungle – a hairy ride over a small trail. Suddenly the jungle disappears as if a bomb has fallen and left a big crater, such is the extent of the work local inhabitants have made in the area. I meet a family who lives in tents next to the mine.

Image taken with a Nikon D700, 17-35mm f2.8, at 25mm, 1/200, f9
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

‘For this photo it had just started to drizzle. Suddenly a mother appears with her child and walks towards the edge of the mine. I run towards them. What a great moment! I was looking to show the scale of the destruction and by having the mother and kid in the foreground I can demonstrate that perfectly.’

Also living here is a family (two parents with two kids) and eight workers. One of the workers comments “My father started mining and now my brothers and I are miners too. It’s tough work, but the money is good. We made this hole in a month. When there is no gold anymore, we move to another place and start digging again.”

The sun is setting, but I’m pleased to hear the family has allowed me to return in the early morning.

In the morning, I am allowed to shoot at a gold dealer, with his two hands holding thousands of dollars of gold. I needed this image; I can’t do a story on gold-mining and have no image of gold. Often, when telling a story with an image, the context of the image is key, for example, by showing the family living by the mine. Also, knowing on what you want to focus on will help you determine which settings you need: see the image below of the hands with the gold.

Image taken with a Nikon D700, 50 mm f1.4, 1/500 at f1.4
Image © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

‘Here I am using f1.4, the widest aperture on the lens to create a very shallow depth of field so the focus is on the gold’

The next leg of my journey will take me on to Ecuador and Colombia, where I will hopefully be able to do stories on the conflict and the resulting forced migration. Obviously Colombia is affected, but interestingly Ecuador gets a fair share of Colombian refugees, so the stories and images I get will have many moving personal stories behind them.

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. The ‘Via PanAm’ app for the iPad is available in the app store here.

Read part one and part two of Kadir’s travels as he starts his trip from Puerto Toro located on Isla Navarino, just north of Cape Horn before heading to  the salt lakes and lithium mines of Bolivia.