They are the scenes of illegal gold mining in “Garimpeiros: The Wildcat Gold Miners of the Amazon Rainforest,” an exhibition in the Ocean Gallery of the UC Santa Barbara Library through Aug. 31.

Hoelle, the author of “Rainforest Cowboys: The Rise of Ranching and Cattle Culture in Western Amazonia” (University of Texas Press), has spent considerable time among people scratching out a living in the dense wilds of Brazil. In 2015 he was invited to visit the mines by Peter Richards, an economist, now at the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Michael Klingler, a geographer and photographer from the University of Innsbruck in Austria. The research project was sponsored by a grant from National Geographic Society, and aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the vilified and misunderstood gold mines located deep in the Amazon rainforest. 

Curated by Jeffrey Hoelle, an associate professor of anthropology, and Jonathan Rissmeyer, library senior artist, the exhibit of 42 photos explores the world of wildcat miners, or garimpeiros, who try to make a living scratching gold out of the rainforest.