This photo essay explores the lives of Waorani people living along oil roads. Waorani people, hunter-gatherers from Ecuadorian Amazonia, accepted peaceful contact in the late 1950’s; since then they have navigated a series of changes which are bodily experienced.In Amazonia the theory that the body is socially made, and society is bodily constructed is well established. Thus, Waorani bodily changes are of particular relevance for their social reproduction.
This photo essay takes place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – the site of the nuclear disaster that occurred at 1.23am on April 26th, 1986 that led to the permanent evacuation of around 1,000 square miles in Ukraine and 835 square miles in Belarus. The focus of the series is on the lives of the dogs that live amidst the toxic remnants of the disaster, including Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 amongst other non-radioactive toxics.
PECE essay with material for the CfE workhop, Building Immersive Worlds with Scott Lukas.
