As crude oil’s multiyear boom turned to bust with prices dropping from $100 a barrel to below $50 in 2015, a projected 140,000 Texans working in the oil industry lost their jobs. This project explores how life in the south Texas oil fields has changed as a result.

A pump jack stands next to a picnic area outside of LaGrange, Texas, U.S. on February 19, 2015. 

Tino Gaona prays in his bedroom on the morning of his youngest daughter's 24th birthday, which he is missing because he must work in the oil fields, in Cotulla, Texas, U.S. on August 6, 2015. "I miss a lot of birthdays and holidays, but that is how it goes," he said. He prays every morning before going to work in the oil field. Of God, he said, "He's the reason I am still here, so I pray for everybody on my crew."

Contract operator Hans Helland and company man Nolan Sheedy talk by an oil rig in Hallettsville, Texas on May 22, 2015. The steep drop in oil prices has forced oil companies to cancel drilling contracts throughout the Eagle Ford Shale region.

Harvey Howell, center, looks at data from the mud log with Hans Helland, right, and Frank Sitterle, left, in a trailer on an oil rig site in Hallettsville, Texas, U.S. on May 22, 2015. The mud log data shows how much crude oil exists at various depths in a well.

Devin Meurer, a former U.S. Marine, lays in bed with his dog Rocco in his apartment in Pleasanton, Texas, U.S. on August 6, 2015. Meurer is facing eviction after getting in a motorcycle accident and losing his third oil field job since December 2014. Rocco died a few weeks later. "Rocco was my savior," he said. "I am just trying to make it another day." “I’d rather go back to Iraq," he said. "At least I know who’s shooting at me over there. Here, every angle something is wrong. Everyone is shooting at you.”

Melissa Rios holds her daughter Marley Rios, 5, at her mother's house on April 5, 2015 in San Antonio, Texas. She attended the Easter barbecue with Devin Meurer, a former U.S. Marine who has gone through three oil field jobs since December 2014. "We're broke. We had to figure out which car had more gas to get us here because we can't afford to fill the tank," Meurer said.

Ronnie Moore and Billy Davis eat lunch at JJ's Country Store in Cotulla, Texas on August 5, 2015. They both haul frac sand in the Eagle Ford Shale region. "Damn near overnight we started making half of what we used to make," Moore said. "All you hear is talk. Nobody knows what is going to happen. I want to retire soon, but my wife doesn't want me home all the time."

The Cotulla Vaqueros watch as Breyon Deltoro, 4, of the Little Vaqueros, races back to the finish line during the goat tagging relay for children six years and under at the LaSalle County Fair and Wild Hog Cookoff in Cotulla, Texas on March 13, 2015.

Llewellyn Oil Company Supply Store stands permanently closed down in Fowlerton, Texas on August 5, 2015.

Bianca Chaires, 8, holds her family's puppy Brisket as she walks down the road that winds through the Cotulla RV Park in Cotulla, Texas, U.S. on March 7, 2015. The RV park serves the oil field workers and their companies who want to have a more affordable and home-like living arrangement. She lives in one of the RVs with her family.