many of you remember my mid-session decision 4 years ago to drop out of brooks photography school and fly to ecuador to visit max and amie and explore south america for a month. i was burned out at that point and couldn’t even lift a camera my last few days at school… yet the second i got to ecuador i rediscovered my love for shooting. one of my short trips was with max’s cousin elizabeth who was working with a indigenous tribe called the cofan. on the long bus ride over i read a book about the cofan’s courageous and intense battles (and victories) with oil companies over the years. i was able to hang out with and photograph these beautiful people for the next few days, and above are two of the photographs i shot. the man in these photos is featured in a new documentary called “Crude” which is about the battle between the oil companies and the cofan people that still wages in the jungles of ecuador. please check out this film!