Bahia De Panama is a busy area in front of Panama City. It is filled with fisherman, boat captains and ocean going vessels from a Panga to a Post Panamax.
Black and White en Panama
June/July, 2004. Panama, Central America. Ships pass through the locks all day long at the Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal near the Pacific Ocean and the Port Of Panama.
Panama Canal
A Panamax ship transits the Culebra Cut in the Panama Canal.
Panama Canal Expansion
In Paraiso along side the Panama Canal dignitaries including current Panamanian president Martin Torrijos, Administrator of the Panama Canal Alberto Aleman Zubieta and former US president Jimmy Carter all speak before the ceremonial explosion at Cerro Paraiso. The Panama Canal expansion project is projected to take seven years and costs more then 5 Billion dollars. More then 10,000 Panamanians turned out for the historic event.
New locks at the Panama Canal
An dump truck drives out of the new lock on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal expansion. Work continues on the Panama Canal. Near Cocoli the new set of Post Panamax locks are being constructed with staggering amounts of rebar, labor and cement. The locks will be 45% more water efficient. These locks are on the Pacific Ocean entrance of EL CANAL.
New locks at the Panama Canal
Work continues on the Panama Canal. Near Cocoli the new set of Post Panamax locks are being constructed with staggering amounts of rebar, labor and cement. The locks will be 45% more water efficient. These locks are on the Pacific Ocean entrance of EL CANAL.
Panama: Crossroads of the World
Arenosa
La Arenosa Gatun Lake
At an estuary near the Panama Canal children play by the waters edge while little skiffs take tourists out for fishing expeditions on the lake. An old rope gives children hours of play time.
El Canal March 2011
A welder with his protective gear. A consortium made up of Spanish construction firm FCC, Mexico's ICA and Costa Rica's Meco has won a Panama Canal dry-excavation contract with a $267.8 million bid. The dry excavation is on the north side of El Canal. There is also a coffer dam being put in by Goettles of Ohio. That project uses many welders to connect the steel of the dam. In addition Austin Powder is doing controlled explosions to loose the ground for excavation.
New locks at the Panama Canal
Work continues on the Panama Canal. Near Cocoli the new set of Post Panamax locks are being constructed with staggering amounts of rebar, labor and cement. The locks will be 45% more water efficient. These locks are on the Pacific Ocean entrance of EL CANAL.
Andrew Kaufman's project on the Panama Canal contains so many elements of fine, long-form documentary photography. Kaufman has sculpted an eloquent portrait out of the dizzying and tumultuous array of events, circumstances and activities that constitutes such a mammoth construction project. His commitment and resolve to stay with this difficult and complex project for a number of years in order to provide the rich context to the series that is so necessary for our understanding of his subject is the hallmark of a serious documentary photographer. He balances epic views, graphic and muscular settings and telling human context in a way that is riveting. Kaufman's project continues the noble and heroic lineages reaching back, even past Lewis Hine and many other great documentary photographers, to some of the earliest chroniclers of our world and its epic events.
Kevin Miller
Director of the Southeast Museum of Photography
Congratulations to all of the Finalists in the 2013 Michael P. Smith Fund For Documentary Photography