Oil Rich Niger Delta, 2003–2007
Projection of 120 digital photographs, 10′, looped
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Acquired 2010
George Osodi is an internationally acclaimed Nigerian documentary photographer and photojournalist, known for work that explores environmental destruction, urban life, culture, and social issues in his country. The photographic series Oil Rich Niger Delta emerged from long-term observation and documentation of the effects of oil extraction in the Niger River region and is presented as a large-scale digital slide projection. In this photographic essay, comprising 120 photographs taken over a four-year period, George Osodi reveals the great paradox of colonialism: the impoverishment, destitution, political instability, and ecological degradation plaguing a region precisely because of the wealth of its natural resources. For more than half a century, oil extraction in the region has polluted the water, land, and air, preventing other forms of economy from developing, causing political instability, and allowing major oil companies to reap all the wealth while condemning the local population to abject poverty.
The violence depicted in Osodi’s photographs is rendered without sensationalism and without offending or victimising their subjects. On the contrary, the beauty of his photographs mainly foregrounds the dignity of people surviving within a social and political context whose complexity far exceeds their capacity to cope. As the artist himself notes, “[I want to give] a human face to this lost paradise; my intention is not to offend, but rather to bring the viewer closer in order to evoke an emotion and trigger a shift within the observer”.
George Osodi was born in Lagos, Nigeria, where he lives and works.
