Aaron Vincent Elkaim

Where The Rier Runs Through

[ EPF 2015 HONORABLE MENTION ]

Plans for what would eventually be called the Belo Monte Dam Complex began in 1975, under the apex of military dictatorship in Brazil. The dam would be built within the Xingu River basin, in the state of Para, home to Brazil’s first indigenous reserve. In 1989 the Kayapo, a warrior tribe who feared for the health of the river that was the centre of their lives, mounted a massive public campaign in opposition of its construction. International financiers soon pulled their support, and the project was shelved.

 

 

In 2007, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the Accelerated Growth Program (PAC), the largest investment package to spur economic growth in Brazil in the past 40 years. A cornerstone of this program is the industrialization of the Amazon, which includes the construction of over 60 major Hydroelectric projects over a 15 year period. Belo Monte is at the forefront. The energy generated from these projects will fuel mining initiatives within the Amazon rainforest and power cities thousands of miles away. Now nearing completion, Belo Monte is soon to be the third largest dam in the world, and is expected to displace between 20-40,000 people. On the neighbouring Tapajos River, the Munduruku tribe are fighting to prevent a similar fate; the next mega-dam is already planned.

Hydroelectric dams are touted as clean and renewable sources of energy, but the real impact of large dams is often anything but. Hundreds of square miles of land are flooded and complex river ecosystems permanently transformed. In the Amazon, new infrastructure and population growth opens the forests to increased logging, mining, and agriculture. The end result is the erosion of the Amazon Rainforest and the sacrifice of cultures and communities who depend on the river and forest ecosystems for their way of life.

This is a long-term document of the people of the Amazon Rainforest as they face the challenges of environmental and social transformation.

 

 

Bio

Aaron Vincent Elkaim was born in 1981 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the historic heart of the Canadian Fur Trade where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet. The river has underscored his work both metaphorically and literally as it concerns moments of human transition in relation to environmental change. Informed by his countries colonialist history, he is drawn to narratives that explore the nuances of history, culture and oppression.

In 2014, Aaron won Gold in the Society of Designers Publication Awards for a commission about the culture of the Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska for the New Yorker Magazine. He was the recipient of the 2012 Daylight Photo Award, Best Personal Essay, Photo District News Annual (2010), and has been recognized by the Oskar Barnak Award (2014), American Photography (26,27,29), Anthropographia (2012), the Magenta Foundation (2013, 2014), and the Lucie Foundation (2010), among others. He work has been exhibited internationally.

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Aaron Vincent Elkaim

 

4 thoughts on “Aaron Vincent Elkaim – Where The River Runs Through”

  1. Aaron,

    This is an impressive and very welcome project. Your photography is well done and interesting, your analysis and understanding are thoughtful and penetrating, and your heart is clearly in the right place. I wish you luck, and the perseverance you will need against the powerful who constantly seek to dam and to pollute the earth’s rivers, and I hope you keep following the course of this and other rivers.

  2. i love this project so much….and a finer, stronger, more sensitive and caring individual than Aaron you would be hard pressed to find!

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