A soldier guards the first outpost controlled by the government after leaving a FARC-controlled region.
Mads: I wanted to see both sides of the story, in order to understand more of the country – to understand more of who and what FARC are and to see the poverty and inequality in Colombian society.How did you find your way into that world?
Through my international work I have put together a fairly extensive network of contacts. I eventually met some young people who pick coca leaves for a living, and they let me tag along with my camera. They would transport the leaves to a lab in the jungle, where I was allowed to take photos of them as long as I didn't show their faces. But after only a few hours they became more and more open with me and they started to let me photograph their faces. Once you've been allowed in at one lab, others are easier to access.
André working in his coke lab with his family.
The boys I met earn twice as much picking coca leaves as they do picking coffee beans, so obviously many choose the former. But they don't use the drug themselves – they prefer alcohol. The boys deliver the leaves to a man named André, who runs a lab in the jungle hidden under a makeshift awning, making it undetectable from the sky. He crushes the leaves with a gardening tool and douses them with chemicals, then he uses diesel oil, caustic soda and cement, and leaves them sitting for a while to concentrate the active ingredients. The entire process takes a day. It smells terrible – you almost get high from the fumes alone.
There's more cocaine being manufactured in Colombia than ever before. You see fields spread sporadically across the countryside, but once you venture more inland they are everywhere. I once visited an area close to the city of Cali with marijuana and coca fields as far as the eye could see. Everyone in the local community seemed to be involved in the production or sale of cannabis and cocaine. But no one uses the products themselves – not even André. His dream is to become a pilot, so he's saving up for his certificate.Was it hard to gain their trust?
Yes, of course. The people there generally distrust the media, as well they should. The media often portray them as terrorists, and obviously that's not how they see themselves. They need a really compelling reason to let you in. Most of the time, when they do, it's because they want the world to see things from their perspective.Many FARC soldiers have been involved in the organisation since they were teenagers, and they're not used to talking to westerners. They're used to interacting with a gun in their hands, and that obviously changes a relationship.
Cannabis plants get artificial lighting in the first months to accelerate growth. All the small lights on the distant mountains are other weed farms.
In Colombia there are regions that are under government control and regions that are under some FARC control. But there are also areas where neither is in control, and those can be dangerous to move around in. There were areas where I had previously worked that I wanted to return to, but I was told it was impossible because they could no longer guarantee my safety there. These were areas where police officers had recently been killed.
They feel a strong sense of unity. They lead a simple life in the jungle, where they believe they're fighting for a cause and making a difference in the world. I don't share their beliefs, and I have been open with them about that, but I also don't consider them terrorists. Simply condemning people isn't helpful when you're trying to cover them as a photographer. Even if I were to document the lives of ISIS fighters, I would need to examine the nuances of their lives instead of simply writing them off as terrorists.
I was surprised to learn how much we all have in common. People are motivated and driven by the same things. In a world as crazy as ours, it's life affirming to realise that you can connect with anyone as long as you're open to hearing them out. Maybe that makes me sound like a hippie, but that's not really it – I don't like to judge people. André has produced tons of cocaine, but who is responsible? The person making it or the person consuming it? I'm more curious than I am judgmental.What do you reckon the future holds for Colombia?
It's a wonderful, awe-inspiring country. I photographed a father with his two daughters by a marijuana field. The father said to me: "Drugs bring violence, addiction, chaos, conflict and armed guerrillas to our country. But if I didn't have this, I wouldn't be able to afford school uniforms for my daughters." He's tried farming other types of crops in the past, but none of them yield a profit you can live on. The infrastructure in the mountains is crumbling, and it's easier to move half a kilo of cocaine down the hillside than a truckload of tomatoes. When people are living in extreme poverty, they do things out of desperation. If you wish to combat that you need to address the issue of poverty first.Scroll down to see more photos from Mads Nissen's We are Indestructible.
A nine-year-old playing on a basketball court.
Seven-year-old Astri and nine-year-old Feryi pose on the cannabis farm that their parents said paid for their school uniforms.
Gasoline is poured over coca leaves.
The empty streets of Soacha, south of the capital, Bogotá.
Cement is sprayed over dried coca leaves.
A kilo of cocaine paste, which will be refined further into powder.
All the coca leaf pickers photographed here are between 15 and 21 years old.
Dried cannabis.
Soacha, Colombia.
