Rena Effendi

The Azerbaijani Rena Effendi (Soviet Union, 1977) began photographing in 2001, and since then has won many prizes, including Magnum Foundation and Sony awards. She focuses primarily on the effect that the oil industry has had on life in her own country. She traced the route of a 1700 kilometre pipeline for her first book, Pipe Dreams: A Chronicle of Lives along the Pipeline. In 2011 she was honoured by the Dutch Prince Claus Fund for the way in which she ‘has recorded the social impact of unrestrained, profit-driven “development”.