Haunting photos of life around the world’s oil fields
- Text by Isaac Muk
- Photography by Robin Hinsch
![Haunting photos of life around the world’s oil fields](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/web-Ese-Awolowo-Nigeria-2019-Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
In 2019, when Robin Hinsch was travelling around the Niger Delta with his camera looking to capture the effects of fossil fuel extraction on the environment, he met a man working for a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) named Fyneface Dumnamane. While Dumnamene would show Hinsch around – taking him to the oil fields in the area and introducing him to people who lived around them – they would engage in deep conversations.
The pair would chat about the destruction they saw, the people who were harmed, and the bleak outlook for the future of the environment. Hinsch found these conversations illuminating and inspiring. “He was very charismatic, very talkative,” Hinsch says. “He was almost like an actor – he had a great energy.”
The vast majority of the time, the pair would converse in English, with Hinsch hailing from Germany, and Dumnamene being local to Nigeria, but occasionally when “something really worried him”, Dumnamene would flip to his native Yoruba and use the term “wahala” to express his feelings. “Wahala” roughly translates to English as “trouble” or “turmoil” – and the word resonated with Hinsch.
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Reuben-Ayuba-and-Friend-Luekue-Nigeria-2019_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Reuben, a local Police Officer in the Niger Delta, with a friend, Nigeria
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Schwarze-Pumpe-Brandenburg-Spremberg-Germany-2016-Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Coal Power Plant, Schwarze Pumpe in East Germany
“It somehow stayed with me, because it would have been the same if I had talked to him at my place,” he says. “Maybe when I was really surprised, I would have said something in German, but the term ‘wahala’ came up very often.”
The word stuck with Hinsch so much, that the term has now become the title of his new photobook. On top of pictures he took while visiting the Niger Delta, it also collates shots from trips he also made to the coal mines of Jharkhand in eastern India and the Rhine Valley in Germany, capturing the devastating effects of fossil fuels on the local landscapes and people.
Wahala’s photographs are bleak and hellish, with smoke and fire billowing from the ground – a pictorial representation of the world burning. With so much damage and devastation visible, particularly in the book’s landscapes, it becomes difficult to discern where each picture was taken – instead the focus is on the singular planet that we live on.
“I like to fragment the locations,” he says. “I tried to make the point that although [fossil fuel extraction] is happening over there, it’s not only their problem, and it’s not only our problem.”
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Web-Suhani-Kumari-Jharia-Dhanbad-Jharkhand-India-2019_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
A childworker -Suhani kumari- in an open cast mine in Dhanbad, India
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Gas-Flaring-Site-Ughelli-Niger-Delta-Nigeria-2019_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Natural Gas Flaring Site in Ughelli, Niger Delta, Nigeria
While people in the West discuss ways to prevent an incoming climate catastrophe, what Hinsch saw was that an imagined future for many was already the present in areas he visited. “In Jharkand, you have massive extraction of fossil fuels, and big generational wealth, but the place is totally ruined,” he says. “You already have this totally apocalyptic catastrophe.
“In the Western world people are thinking: ‘Can I drive today? Maybe tomorrow the world will be in ruins because I put 50 litres in my car,’” he continues. “But in the Niger Delta for example, where [much] of the world’s diesel is coming from, people in these poorer places – places that have been exploited since the colonial times – already live in this hell.”
Life is tough for these people, with very few seeing any economic benefits from the natural resources being mined in their areas. “Most people have no chance to participate in it,” Hinsch says. “They are completely excluded from job opportunities, from livelihoods – it’s not like they are coming and saying: ‘Okay, we’ve taken you coal, but we’ve built 30 beautiful schools.’”
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Coal-Field-Fire-II-India-2019-Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
A fire in an open cast mine in Dhanbad, India
Despite this, their stories are of full of resilience, something that shines through in the photographs. Many have found ways to make livings for themselves independently of any oil, gas or coal companies.
“In India and in Nigeria, because of the poor conditions of the area, most people tap or hack into the systems,” he says. “In Nigeria you have a lot of people who drill into the pipeline or steal barrels from the tankers.
“The people are not completely depressed – people can adapt very well to the situations,” he continues. “They still believe that everything will be good in the end – there’s still strength. It’s not a collection of victims.”
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Protestor%E2%80%99s-Treehouses-Germany-2020-Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Protestors Treehouses, Hambach Forest, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 2022
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Roman-Janiszek-Wa%C5%82brzych-Lower-Silesia-Poland-2020_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Portrait of the former Miner Roman Janiszek in Walbryzch, Poland
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Abdulmumin-Ibrahim-and-Rafiu-Bankole-Nigeria-2019-Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Abdulmumin Ibrahin and Rafiu Bankole, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Gas-Flaring-Site-Ughelli-Niger-Delta-Nigeria-2019_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Natural Gas Flaring Site in Ughelli, Niger Delta, Nigeria
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Unfinished-Settlement-India-2019_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Never finished settlement in Jharia, India
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Polluted-Area-in-B-Dere-II-Niger-Delta-Nigeria-2019_Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Polluted Area in B-Dere, Niger Delta, Nigeria
![](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/web-Demolished-House-Manheim-Germany-2020-Robin-Hinsch.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Destroyed House in Manheim, Germany. The village is beeing destroyed to make way for the near by open cast mine.
Wahala by Robin Hinsch is published by Gost Books.
Latest on Huck
![Meet the Paratriathlete who cheated death twice](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/Huck81_Socials_HeroImage_George3.0_240618_V2.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Meet the Paratriathlete who cheated death twice
A near fatal training crash ruined British Paralympian George Peasgood’s Paris 2024 plans. As he recovers, his life and outlook are changing – will LA 2028 be part of his future?
Written by: Sheridan Wilbur
A glimpse of life for women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule
‘NO WOMAN’S LAND’ has been awarded the prestigious 14th Carmignac Photojournalism Award and will be exhibited at the Réfectoire des Cordelieres in Paris this autumn.
Written by: Isaac Muk
![In Photos: A decade growing up in pre-gentrification Lower East Side](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/Cappetta_Angela_1.jpeg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
In Photos: A decade growing up in pre-gentrification Lower East Side
A new photobook provides an up-close-and-personal look at the life of a Puerto Rican family, documenting them growing up as the world changed around them.
Written by: Isaac Muk
![This summer taught us everything is... marketing](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/Huck_Newsletter_Aug24_Collage_Green_V1.png?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
This summer taught us everything is... marketing
Months of historic political violence, memes, auras, and, of course, ‘brat’ has newsletter columnist Emma Garland asking if anything is real anymore?
Written by: Emma Garland
![Rick Castro’s intimate portraits of love and remembrance](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/Rick-Castro-1.png?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Rick Castro’s intimate portraits of love and remembrance
Columbarium Continuum is an ongoing exhibition of photographs displayed inside the two-story art nouveau columbarium of the iconic Hollywood Forever cemetery.
Written by: Miss Rosen
![The disabled Flâneur forcing us to rethink our cities](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/The-Flaneur_1.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
The disabled Flâneur forcing us to rethink our cities
This perspective-shifting short film follows Phil Waterworth, the wheelchair-bound urban explorer confronting a lack of accessibility in cities like Sheffield.
Written by: Alex King