Events

HOST gallery is pleased to announce an evening with photographer Ed Kashi. Kashi will be speaking about his work exhibited at HOST, Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, with Colin Jacobson. 

Curse of the Black Gold takes a graphic look at the profound cost of oil exploitation in West Africa. Now one of the major suppliers of US oil, Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of oil in the world.

Set against a backdrop of what has been called the scramble for African oil, Curse of Black Gold is the first body of work to document the consequences of a half-century of oil exploration and production in one of the world’s foremost centers of biodiversity. Kashi’s photographs expose the reality of oil’s impact and the absence of sustainable development in its wake, providing a compelling pictorial history of one of the world’s great deltaic areas. The photographs capture local leaders, armed militants, oil workers, and nameless villagers, all of whose fate is inextricably linked, illustrating the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty. Curse of The Black Gold is a landmark work of historic significance.

Ed Kashi was born in New York City and received a degree in photojournalism from Syracuse University. Kashi’s first major documentary project, a study of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland, garnered him a NEA grant. Kashi has received numerous awards, including the World Press and Pictures of the Year competitions and has published his work in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Geo and Newsweek among others. Kashi lives in New Jersey.

Colin Jacobson, renowned photo editor, critic and founder of Reportage Magazine, is professor of photojournalism at Westminster University.

Copies of Curse of the Black Gold (Powerhouse 2008) will be available to purchase and for signing on the night.