Presentation of the artist's past renditions of Unbroken

1. PORTFOLIO
FELIPE JACOME
b. 1985, Ecuador
BASED IN ECUADOR AND USA

2. Unbroken
Ukraine´s Ballerinas
Russia´s invasion of Ukraine which began
on February 24, 2022, constitutes one of the
largest conventional wars since World War
II. The level of destruction across Ukraine is
unfathomable with several cities and towns
being reduced to rubble. The fighting has
also unleashed the largest refugee crisis in
the world with over 8 million people being
displaced inside Ukraine and 7 million
fleeing the country.
The Unbroken Project is the result of an
artistic collaboration between the Felipe
Jácome (photographer) and Svetlana
Onipko (photographer and dancer of the
Ukrainian National Ballet). The artists met
2 years before the war during a photoshoot
in Kyiv and connected over their love for
photography.

3. For this project, the artists transfer images of Ukrainian
ballerinas displaced by the conflict onto bullet casings.
The strength, determination, and beauty of the dancers
is juxtaposed with the senseless violence, brutality, and
destruction inflicted by the bullets.
This project was carried out in May 2022 in Warswaw, Poland.
The collaboration of Felipe and Svetlana is documented in a 9
minute video that can be found in the following link:
https://vimeo.com/727570573
All profits generated from the sale of the photographs of the
Unbroken project will be donated for relief and recovery efforts
in Ukraine.
The dancers that participated in the project are:
Vlada Shevchenko, Diana Stetsenko, Anastasiia Bilokon,
Nika Afonina, Anna Schmatchenko, Masha Samara, Alona
Kapustyan.

8. Spill
Oil Spills in Waorani Amazon
This photo essay seeks to create a representation of the
impactofoilexploitationonindigenouscommunitiesinthe
Ecuadorian Amazon. The photos in the series are printed
on cotton paper in large format and combine images of the
daily life of the Waorani peoples with crude-oil marks made
with a large variety of leaves from the Amazon rainforest.
Even though oil exploitation has wreaked havoc in much
of the Ecuadorian rainforest since the 1950s, it´s probably
the Waorani people who have suffered the wrath of oil
exploitation most violently. The Waorani are the tribe of
most recent `contact´ in the Ecuadorian Amazon. They had
lived for centuries in the jungle as hunters and gatherers,
fiercely defending their territory against any intruders.
Their warrior prowess and the force with which they
had fought outsiders had earned them name of ‘aucas’ or
savages.
Previous page: Carmen puts on achiote pigment across her eyes,
the traditional face paint of the Waorani.
Right: Miñigua is one of the elders of the Waorani tribe. He was
pulled out of the jungle by Christian missionaries as a young boy,
only to find roads and oil wells in his territory when he went back.

9. However, by the 1960s, oil companies coveted
their land and missionaries their souls. And so,
the Waorani were pulled from the jungle to the
crosshairs of an oil-thirsty modern society. Since
then, the Waorani people have known little more
than oil exploitation and the devastation that
accompanies it: oil spills, pollution, logging,
prostitution, and alcoholism.
This ongoing project comes at a time of an
expansion of the oil and mining frontier in the
Ecuadorian Amazon. The continued oil spills, the
poisoning of soil and rivers, and the increased
illegal logging and hunting are threatening the
lives of indigenous peoples such as the Waorani.
I hope that the combination of the images of the
daily life of the Waorani and the marks and stains
made with crude-oil effectively communicate
the violence and the destruction of extractive
industries and its brutal impacts on indigenous
peoples.
Left: The view of the Cononaco river, at the heart of
Waorani territory.

10. Above: Wilmer Tega uses a blowgun to hunt monkeys.
Right: Isabel carries a bushel of chonta, a coveted fruit that grows
on chonta palm trees only once a year.
Next page: A tapir swims in the Cononaco River. The river has
been polluted in the past years by oil spills killing much of the
fauna in it.

12. Pedro Martínez migrated to Perú early 2018 but went back to
Venezuela to bring his wife and child. His eight nephews decided
to tag along and join him in Perú in search for a better life.
Los Caminantes
The Venezuelan Exodus

13. In 2018 thousands of Venezuelan
migrants began fleeing across South
America every day. I was in my
hometown in Ecuador, covering the
arrival of the refugees, when a little girl
who’d walked out of her country gave
me an origami figure of a star made with
Venezuelan money. Other Venezuelans
were handing out their worthless, hyper-
inflated bolivars as souvenirs in exchange
for a few dollars, and many others had
created bags, wallets and bracelets out of
folded bills.
I held that origami figure in my hands
and wondered what everyday life was
like in a land where money had stopped
being money and where a monthly wage
can barely purchase a bag of rice. The
colorful bolivars were, finally, the most
tangible manifestation of an exodus that
is nearly as big as the one from Syria,
with more 3.5 million hitting the road.
With these questions in mind I set out
to the Venezuelan border to document
their exodus. I found a road lined with
packs of men, women, and children,
their faces riddled with chagrin, fear,
grieve, nostalgia, resignation, and above
all uncertainty.
Lisette Silva, from Maracay, Venezuela hoped
to reach Peru where her cousins are currently
living. She left her two children with her
mother in Venezuela. “We need to fight for
those we left behind,” she said.

14. Fernando Ruiz, 25, is from Valencia,
Venezuela. He decided to leave the
country soon after his first son was born.
“We do anything for our children,” he
said. This image was taken on the road
leaving Cucuta, Colombia.
They call themselves “Caminantes,”
loosely translated as Walkers or
Wayfarers. I joined a group and
trekked with them across 200km from
Cucuta to Bucaramanga, arguably one
of the toughest stretches on the road
leaving Venezuela.
After the trip I decided to transfer the
images of the Caminantes I had met
on the road directly onto the defunct
Bolivar currency by using a silver
gelatin process. The light sensitive
emulsion bonded the images of the
migrants to the bills; the very symbol,
cause, and consequence of the crisis.
The faces on the currency of Bolivar,
Miranda, Guicaipuro, Cáceres de
Arismendi, Negro Primero… once
proudly propping up the richness and
successofVenezuela,nowseemtolook
on to a generation ejected from their
country by hunger and hopelessness.
Similarly, the flora and fauna on the
reverse side of the bills now speak of
a lavish motherland abandoned by its
people.

15. Andreina and her daughter start walking at 5am from the
city of Cucuta, Colombia. They arrived from Venezuela 6
months before, but Andreina got involved in an abusive rela-
tionship with a Colombian man. They hope to find a new life
in a different city in Colombia.
Next page
Top left: Ender Perez from Barquesimento, Ven-
ezuela had been walking for five days before
reaching the Berlin highlands. He works as a bar-
ber and is on his way to Peru.
Bottom Left: Luis Silva (62) from Puerto Cabel-
lo, Venezuela, left his home 3 months ago. “See-
ing my grandchildren go to sleep feeling hungry
broke my heart. That´s why I´m on the road,” he
said.
Right: Diana María Gonzáles and her children
are traveling to Ecuador to join her husband who
had left 5 months before them. “He was send-
ing us money regularly, but once converted to
Bolívares it was not enough to buy food for the
household,” she said.

17. Amazonas
Guardians of Life
My name is Hueiya. I live in the Waorani com-
munity called Ñoneno. I fight for my communi-
ty, so that in the future our children don´t suffer
and can live in peace breathing clean air. I fight so
my children don’t have to suffer, so that their land
continues to be fertile and free of pollution, so that
our rivers continue to be clean so they can drink
clean water. I fight for all children who are yet to
be born in this earth.

18. On October, 2013, nearly 300 women from
7 different indigenous tribes of the Ecuador-
ian Amazon embarked on a 200km march to
the country´s capital to ask the central gov-
ernment to spare their ancestral lands from
oil and mining. While women have always
played an active role in a number of historical
marches that punctuated the struggle for in-
digenous rights in Ecuador, this was the first
march that was organized and spearheaded
by women.
This piece aims to document the struggle of
the indigenous women defending the Ecua-
dorian Amazon from oil exploitation through
a series of images combining portraiture with
their written testimonies and artistic expres-
sions. The words written on the images are
self-reflections of the women´s lives, of their
culture, history, traditions, and their reasons
for fighting against oil extraction in their an-
cestral lands. The traces around the portraits
use the same natural dies with which they
decorate their faces to draw the symbols and
patterns that reflect their personalities and
their struggle.

19. Previous page: My name is Nancy. We want to defend
our land, our jungle, the rivers, the mountains and the
trees that house the spirits of the jungle. This is why the
women of the Amazon need to rise up and march to de-
fend our jungle. The president doesn’t value and doesn’t
know the jungle. That’s why he wants to destroy it. Our
children understand life through the stories and lessons
told by our elders. They learn to love the jungle and they
will grow up thinking of these lessons.
Right: My name is Hasmil Villamil. I’m 11 years old. I
want to live freely in the Amazon jungle. I want to play
with all the animals and I want my community to live
in peace.

20. My name is Jimena. I am a woman of the Shiwiar na-
tionality. I love my land, the nature, I love my animals,
my monkeys, my fish, my rivers, the air we breathe to
live. This is why we´re against oil exploitation. I don’t
want the company to destroy our land. When they come
in we will fight until they leave. This is my message.

21. Cesar Castro has 7 brothers and sisters. He is the only one
of his siblings to pick shells to contribute to his family´s
income. Cayapas Mataje Reserve, Ecuador. 2013

22. Lord of the Mangrove
The Cayapas Mataje Mangrove Reserve in Northwestern Ecuador is
home to the largest mangrove trees in the world and to afro-ecuador-
ian communities that rely on gathering black shells as their form of
livelihood. The people who gather shells are called concheros. Picking
shells is a tremendously arduous task as concheros have to crutch down
for hours in knee-deep mud and endure the inclement environment of
the mangrove to search in the small crevasses of the buried roots. Even
though black shells are a culinary delicacy in Ecuador, shell pickers
are only paid 8 cents of a dollar per shell. On average, pickers will find
between 50 and 100 shells in a day’s work.
In these communities, children as young as 10 years old are expected
to pick shells contribute to their families’ income. Most children are
good shell-pickers as they are agile and light, allowing them to navi-
gate around the infinite spider web of mangrove roots. Even though
community leaders and local authorities encourage children to stay in
school, a significant number of them drop out of class to become full-
time concheros.
This portrait series explores the relationship between childhood, man-
ual labor, and this unique ecosystem.
A group of kids take a break from picking shells. Despite
the efforts offfff local authorities to keep kids in school,
many of them drop out to pick shells full time. Reserva
Cayapas Mataje, Ecuador. 2013

23. The mangroves of the Cayapas Mataje Reserve are the tall-
est in the world. Cayapas Mataje Reserve, Ecuador. 2014.

24. Alejandra Bones has 3 brothers and sisters. She is the only
one of her siblings that picks shells to contribute to the
family´s income. Cayapas Mataje Reserve, Ecuador. 2014.

25. Right: Shell pickers have traditionally worked barefoot.
In the past years, however, most people use rubber boots
and gloves to protect themselves from toadfish and water
snakes living in the mud of the mangroves. Cayapas Mata-
je Reserve, Ecuador. 2014.
Next page left: Soraya Mesa has 9 brothers and sisters, 6 of
which pick shells to contribute to their family´s income.
Next page right: Cesar and Olger goof around in the man-
grove while taking a rest from picking shells.

28. After 10 years of documenting the life and work of the children in Ecuador’s
mangrove forests, Felipe Jácome returns the photographs to the people, the
community, and the forest he has so diligently photographed.
The photo piece entitled Lord of the Mangrove was exhibited inside the for-
est of the Cayapas Mataje Reserve in August 2017. Approximately 400 people
from the communities of Tambillo, Pampanal de Bolívar, San Lorenzo, and
Palma Real visited the exhibit.
This event was possible thanks to the support of the communities of the Cay-
apas Mataje Reserve, and Hivos International. The exhibit was organized in
coordination with the Ministry of Environment of Ecuador.

29. Felipe Jácome is a photographer born in Ecuador. After finishing his studies at the London School of Economics, his work has focused on issues of hu-
man mobility and human rights. His personal work explores the intersection of photography and materiality forming photographic mixdd media pieces.
His photos have appeared in publications such as National Geographic, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Guardian, Vice Magazine,
and CNN.
Exhibits:
2022. Caminantes. Galería Nueva. Madrid, Spain.
2022. Caminantes. Coyoacan. Ciudad de México. México.
2022. Caminantes. Buro Bradwolff. Amsterdam. Holanda.
2021. Caminantes. Prado Norte. México.
2021. Caminantes. Centro Cultural Metropolitano. Quito, Ecuador.
2020. Caminantes. Anastasia Photo. New York, USA.
2020. Caminantes. Centro Cultural Metropolitano. Quito Ecuador.
2020. Breda Photo. Breda, Netherlands.
2019. GESTE Paris. The Truth in Disguese. Paris, France
2019. Caminantes. LensCulture Emerging Talent Exhibition. Paris, France.
2019. Caminantes. Photoville. New York. USA
2018. Amazonas. The World to Come. Art in the Age of the Anthropocene. Harn Museum of Art. USA
2018. Lord of the Mangrove. Lensculture Digital Exhibition, Les Rencontres d’Arles. Arles, France.
2017. Lord of the Mangrove. Public exhibit in the Cayapas Mataje Mangrove Forest. Ecuador
2017. Lord of the Mangrove. Centro de Arte Contemporáneo. Quito, Ecuador
2017. Lord of the Mangrove. Embajada de Ecuador. Washington DC, USA
2017. Lord of the Mangrove. Espacio Cultural CAF. La Paz, Bolivia.
2016. Ciudades Visibles. Centro Cultural Metropolitano. Quito, Ecuador
2015. Right to Exist. Dar El Mussawir. Beirut, Lebanon
2014. Survivors for Survivors. Carr Center for Human Rights. Harvard University. USA
2014. Amazonas Women on the Frontlines of Climate Change. United Nations. NY. USA
2014. Survivors for Survivors. Musumplein. Amsterdam, Holland
2011. ICRC Young Reporter Competition Winners, Geneva.
2011. The Vertical Border: Migration and Human Rights, Amnesty International, San Francisco.
2010. Migration: Origin, Transit, Destination, Return, Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito,.
2010. The Vertical Border: Migration and Human Rights. Georgetown University, Washington DC.
2009. The Vertical Border: Migration and Human Rights, Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito, May 2009.
Awards:
Joop Swart Masterclass Nomination
World Press Photo 6x6 Global Talent Program-Latin America
Lensculture Portait Awards, Finalist. 2019
Lensculture Portait Awards, Finalist/Jurors Pick. 2018
Magenta Foundation. Flash Forward Emerging Photographer Winner. 2015
ICRC Young Reporter Competition Winner. 2011.
Education:
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
MSc. Development Studies, 2008
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
BA International Studies and Economics, 2007