Photojournalist Ed Kashi has joined VII Photo, the prestigious Paris and New York-based photo agency, as a co-owning member. "Ed is not only an amazing photographer, but also an original thinker with huge positive energy, which fits right into VII's dynamic approach to expanding the relevance of photojournalism in the new millennium," says Stephen Mayes, managing director of VII.

Kashi stated his career in photography in the late 1970s. His images have been published in National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine, Time and Newsweek, among many others. He has spent the past five to six years in and out of Niger where he shot Curse of the Black Gold.

Kashi becomes the 12th member of the agency. He joins photographers such as Marcus Bleasdale, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Joachim Ladefoged, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, Franco Pagetti, Stephanie Sinclair and John Stanmeyer. VII also represents the Estate of Alexandra Boulat.

For more information, visit viiphoto.com and www.edkashi.com.

Kashi, who won a Prix Pictet commission last year, has released the book Curse of the Black Gold: 50 years of Oil in the Niger Delta. A few weeks ago, Kashi spoke with BJP about this work. He answers our questions...

BJP: You’ve spent five years working on Curse of the Black Gold. How did you first approach the complexity of the Niger Delta, with its many ethnic groups, political tensions, its corruption and environmental disaster? What attracted you to this region? How did you research it and made the necessary contacts?

Ed Kashi: My introduction to the Niger Delta was through a world class contact, Professor Michael Watts at Berkeley. He had been going there for 30 years and came to know my work in Iraq in 2003 and asked me to join him on a trip in the summer of 2004 to work on a book with him. My research was initially through reading materials from research, NGOs and media to get up to speed with my understanding and knowledge of the place and it's particular issues. But once I went there things really kicked in for me and I became impassioned by what I witnessed. The economic injustice, environmental degradation and evidence of oil's terrible legacy on the people of the region is what got me hooked. And through Prof Watts' contacts I was able to enter a very tricky and dangerous environment to work in as a visual journalist with a greater degree of protection, guidance and thereby access. The Niger Delta is truly one of the hardest places in the world I've ever worked and the complexities and tensions make it a daunting task for the outsider to get in deep and truly gain an understanding of what's going on there. I was able to bridge that potential chasm through my persistence, dedication, hard work and the invaluable assistance and guidance of my Nigerian colleagues.

BJP: When you started working on this project, you had little financial backing. This changed with National Geographic. How did this affect the way you covered this story?

Ed Kashi: My first trip was paid for my a grant from Prof Watts, then using my own resources to return and develop the project further. Finally, when I successfully proposed a story to Nat Geo, that changed my project dramatically. I then had the resources to make two more one month trips, pay for the support structures necessary to operate in that hostile environment, including exorbitant rates for hiring boats to get into the creeks, I gained further legitimacy in the eyes of subjects as diverse as the oil companies to the militants. Without this break, I would have had to toil for a number of years to accomplish what I did in two months of field time.
 
BJP: The environmental disaster and its political consequences with the increasing influence of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta are not unknown to the international community, however, they have scarcely been documented until Curse of the Black Gold. Why, in your opinion, the lack of interest from the rest of the world?

Ed Kashi: The lack of interest in the Niger Delta is symptomatic of the world's lack of consciousness about what has been called the "hydrocarbon myth", in that there is no comprehension of what it takes to make our world run on oil and gas, and the extractive industries responsible for getting these resources to us have done a very good job of making it appear almost like magic. Except for the occasional oil spill, nobody seems to care about where our energy resources come from. You can make the same argument for our food supply. This allows these companies to work, along with corrupt governments with impunity and a lack of good corporate behavior towards the environment, the development concerns of the peoples where the resources are extracted and the overall welfare of the countries they operate in. And the Niger Delta is in Africa, so most people in the West do not pay attention closely to the problems of that continent. I would argue that this dynamic has fueled the abject behavior of the international oil companies and the local governments. This dynamic has got to be stopped!
 
BJP: You gained access to Total’s facilities once your project received the backing of National Geographic. How has your work been received by Total and other oil companies? What kind of difficulties have you encountered from them while working on this project?

Ed Kashi: Total helped me in 2006 because they apparently had a budget for marketing and their CEO was under investigation, so they were the only oil company to help me. Most others either ignored my approaches or told me to not even go to the Delta because it was too dangerous! Total was amazing, generous, open and without their help I would have not documented this very important piece of the visual puzzle of oil in the Niger Delta. Furthermore, I left that encounter with the sense that if the oil companies opened themselves up more and were more transparent, people would appreciate they incredibly difficult and important work they do. Let's face it, we need oil still and so we need these companies to do their work very well. I long for the day when we can move beyond fossil fuels, as they only cause problems almost everywhere they are exploited. I have not received any feedback from the oil companies, including Total. I am not sure if in retrospect they have regrets about letting me in, but we didn't do anything to portray them in a negative light. The difficulties dealing with oil companies in the Delta are the lack of response, the lack of cooperation, the mistrust and paranoia about media, in collusion with the Nigerian security forces the lack of physical access, these are all problems. At one point in June of 2006 while trying to photograph an oil flow station in Bayelsa State, from neutral ground in a river, I was detained by the Nigerian military for 4 days. They don't mess around there.
 
BJP: You also said that, beyond the ecological disaster the oil companies have created, corruption of local government has destroyed the sense of community previously enjoyed by the different ethnic groups. Can this, in your opinion, be salvaged via any means?
 
Ed Kashi: The only way to salvage this fracturing is by finding a more equitable way to share the oil revenue, more transparency in how those funds are used, allowing a generation of Nigerians to develop civil society and a hell of a lot of patience and good luck! The forces aligned against any forward progress are entrenched, powerful and would lose too much money and power.

BJP: You gained access to members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. How did you achieve this? What effect does the group have on the population? Do you believe it provides any hope for a more balanced distribution of oil revenues, or does it just play into the government’s hands, strengthening corruption?

Ed Kashi: I achieved access to MEND through my excellent Nigerian contacts and by proving I was not out to hurt them but just trying to tell their story. Their impact has been both positive and negative. Ultimately it's hard to know and trust them. They steal oil and make profits from their disruptive actions against the oil companies, so they are not clean or heroes. And over time they have become corrupted and infiltrated by thugs and criminal elements. If MEND could distinguish themselves from those elements there might be a chance they could prove a positive element, but I'm not sure that's possible anymore. Also, the Nigerian government has done an effective job in making them out to be villians so some of their credibility has been lost. It's a sad state, and reflects the tragic legacy of Ken Saro Wiwa and the violence that has filled the void after his non-violent movement of the 1990s.
 
BJP: What is the responsibility, in your view, of the oil consumers we all are? Can we do anything to change or is it just a pipe dream?

Ed Kashi: We MUST change the way we consume. Every day I see how our societies, particularly in America, waste, waste and unthinkingly waste resource. Having spent time in developing countries, I've learned to see this waste and understand why people here do not and just take it for granted. We must move ahead in developing alternative sources of energy, we must pay attention to the cars we drive, or if we should drive instead of walking or taking public transportation. But the problem is it will take a very courageous leader to tell the spoiled people in our societies to do more with less. Here is the one area of this resource curse mess where we can make a huge difference cumulatively by taking small steps personally.
 
BJP: A lot of your work is done with NGOs. Is it a conscientious choice or a compulsory move for photographers in an environment where editorial assignments are harder to secure and often lack the time and money commitment of the past?

Ed Kashi: Up until recently, I did not work much with NGO's, other than as facilitators in the field. I am now much more interested in collaborations with NGOs and foundations to produce my work, partly due to the correctly stated industry dynamics taking place in the editorial world, but on an level because we can often share the same goals of advocacy, making change and increasing awareness on tough issues that the general media just won't tackle anymore.
 
BJP: You’re a big proponent of multimedia, using audio for decades, and mixing stills with videos in projects such as The Sandwich Generation. Increasingly, with the development of video-enabled digital SLRs, video is gaining in importance in a photojournalist’s work. Are, in your view, audio and video complementing still photography? How important are these storytelling tools for you? Is still photography still (no pun intended) a powerful medium or does it need to be associated with other media?

Ed Kashi:  Still photography will always exist because our brains are wired to ingest still images. The fact our brains are being rewired might change that equation down the evolutionary road, but for now still images continue to be powerful forms of communication and enlightenment. Mixing still imagery with moving imagery, audio, graphics, ambient sound, music and most importantly the voice of our subjects is exhilarating and has only enhanced our abilities as visual storytellers to tell our stories in new, dynamic ways that can reach broader audiences and break the space logjam that print media has always forced our work into.
 
BJP: Curse of the Black Gold is the result of six years of work. Do you feel you’re finished with this story or do you want to add to it or come back to it in the future? If so, how would you address it?

Ed Kashi: I am not finished with that place, the issues revolving in it and the meta story there. I shot a video there last year and as of now have no plans to return, but fully intend to at some point. My main focus in regards to the Niger Delta at the moment is the outreach, advocacy and educational aspects of this project. And I am very excited to announce that my book, Curse of the Black Gold: Fifty Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, is sold out and being reprinted as we speak. We are making a second edition, soft cover, so it will be slightly cheaper and easier for students to carry around.