Color image of a man standing among machinery; two parallel silver pipes run over his head

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

Impact on the Environment

Return to Impact on the Environment