The Yanomami Struggle

Our film photography post for today is the Yanonami collection by Claudia Andujar. 

Born in Switzerland to Jewish and Protestant parents, Andujar fled Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War after her father and the rest of his family died in the Holocaust. After studying Humanities at Hunter College in New York City, she moved to Brazil in 1955 to pursue photojournalism. 

It was on an assignment for a magazine in 1971 that Claudia met the Yonamami people, one of Brazil’s largest indigenous people, who she would go on to photograph and defend for the rest of her life. For the next five decades after, Claudia has devoted her life’s work to bring political awareness of the Yanomami people, and of the devastating impact of illegal mining, deforestation, and lack of government action that threatens their territory. 

During the early years interacting with the Yonamami people, Claudia began photographing their daily lives and activities, accompanying them on hunting trips and expeditions in the jungle. She began experimenting with different techniques, applying Vaseline to the camera lens, adopting infrared film and rephotographing her pictures with coloured filters. 

In 1977, Claudia was expelled from the region by Brazil’s military regime after denouncing the appropriation indigenous lands by settlers. Nevertheless, she continued to campaign for the rights of the Yanomami people from Sao Paulo, organising fundraisers and vaccinations for the Yanomami people when they were hit by an epidemic. Her efforts culminated in the government marking a protected area for the Yanomami people.