Photography Workshop
Coyhaique to Tortel, Chile —dates TBD
The Story
A combined effort between Italian, Spanish and Canadian electric companies proposes to develop five dams on two of the wildest rivers in the world in the Aysen region of Patagonian Chile — one of the planet’s last wild jewels.
Completion of the dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers would submerge 15,000 acres of Patagonia's remaining wild lands and would require construction of 200-foot tall transmission lines with a clear cut 400-feet wide for 1,500 miles through 64 communities and 14 protected areas. The HidroAysén project would flood globally rare forest ecosystems and some of the most productive agricultural land in the region.
Lastly, and to the documentarian’s eye most importantly, the temporary urban workforce that will also flood these rural areas raises serious concerns about loss of Patagonian cultural traditions and values. What will be lost in economy, health and spirit if Patagonia loses its wild character? Not only is the region's identity as a vast and wild place as risk, but so too are its unique people, whose identities and livelihoods hinge on the land's wildness.
The Assignment
This workshop takes place in the Aysen region of Patagonian Chile. Students have the opportunity to work directly with an international NGO and the Chilean organization Patagonia Sin Represas to create photographs that help these organizations disseminate information to Chileans and to the international environmental community.
The workshop will cover how to plan and document all aspects of a complicated story like this one. Students spend the first four days in Patagonia National Park learning from lectures and shooting assignments on the Baker River, in the park and in the nearby town of Cochrane. Representatives from our partner organizations will visit us to present their work in the region and to help us better understand the kind of photographs that will be beneficial in fighting the dams.
A further two days will be spent in Villa O’Higgins, the southern most town on the Carretera Austral and a gateway community to the region of the proposed Pascua dams. Students will spend the remaining four days of the workshop in the village of Tortel at the mouth of the Baker River, another proposed dam site, to document these coastal people and their beautiful community connected by boardwalks. The final two days are spent editing photographs and attending follow-up lectures before beginning the long journey back to Coyhaique.
Detailed itineraries & prices available soon
Email us to discuss the workshop
Learn more about the Patagonia hydrodam issue