Untitled (44UN-8000-007), Somaliland (Somalia), 1958
Todd Webb
Archival pigment print
Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive L2020.85.60
Not on View
Sinclair Oil Corporation’s explorations for resources in Southern Somaliland (Somalia) exemplify the type of extractive industries conducted throughout the African continent by large corporations from the Global North. Such destructive industry had a lasting impact on the environment. Webb’s close-up image of working men provides a sense of the oil rig expanding into the desert background as it digs down into the earth to extract oil. In spite of its formidable machinery, Sinclair did not find the oil or the natural resources it sought in Somalia.
Image: In Copyright. Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive