Kevin Schafer, American
Boto, or Amazon River Dolphin, from underneath, Rio Negro, Brazil, ca. 2009, 2009
The photograph on the left is a silhouette of a wild Amazon river dolphin, also known as Boto, taken from underneath. Recently listed as “endangered” by the IUCN in 2018, the wild river dolphins of South America were the key species in maintaining biodiversity in the Amazon ecosystem. However, the Amazon dam projects of recent years have put these dolphins and other native aquatic fauna in danger by fragmenting their population anthropogenically. The red-orange tone water was the result of both extreme strong sunlight and low visibility of the water itself. It gives an intense and pressing atmosphere to the photograph itself, creating a message of a hidden danger to the species. Label by Yifei He