Industrial Scars
August 8, 2007 3:10 PM   Subscribe

 
This month's Harper's Magazine has a photo essay by Fair (for subscribers): Visions of excess.

Fair is also involved in wolf conservation and fighting mountaintop removal (more photos here).
posted by homunculus at 3:11 PM on August 8, 2007


Coal is gross.
posted by Popular Ethics at 3:19 PM on August 8, 2007


Phew. I was expecting scars on humans, not scars on the earth.
posted by scblackman at 3:21 PM on August 8, 2007


Industrial scar!
posted by quin at 3:37 PM on August 8, 2007


A good companion to Edward Burtynsky's photos, which I'm pretty certain have been posted here already. Thanks for the post.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:46 PM on August 8, 2007


Oooh, I love Burtynsky's photographs. I saw his exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario when it was here. Quite disturbing... my then-boyfriend and I wandered into the gallery, and saw all these photos full of the most incredible colours. It wasn't until we got closer that we realized what the photos were depicting. Quite the commentary.

Fair's photographs, too, seem to have the same haunting sense of beauty. It's disturbing that the views remain aesthetically beautiful once you know what they are.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:56 PM on August 8, 2007


I like this one the best.
posted by Hicksu at 4:07 PM on August 8, 2007


Does anyone know what the collections of round things with the concentric circles (sort of) around them are?

dirtynumbangelboy: have you seen the documentary about Burtynsky? It's playing in very limited release in the theaters here. Hoping to see it tonight, actually.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:17 PM on August 8, 2007


These are wonderful and gorgeous, but I wish there was a short explanation of what we're seeing. With some photos, it's obvious, whereas others are harder to guess at.

Good find. Thanks.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 4:18 PM on August 8, 2007 [1 favorite]


Here's one of the images I'm wondering about.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:21 PM on August 8, 2007


What's with the back button not working even when you drop down from the scars site straight onto the link for MeFi? Seems like a very aggressive web implementation.
posted by localroger at 5:43 PM on August 8, 2007


Wow, those are beautiful / horrific.
posted by lekvar at 5:54 PM on August 8, 2007


Oneirodynia: salt evaporation pools?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:55 PM on August 8, 2007


The scars on earth bug me much more than scars on people.

Reminds me of my hometown doing this.

Where I used to ride dirt bikes there is now a Walmart. Where I used to fish, there is now a school. ETC.
posted by snsranch at 5:57 PM on August 8, 2007 [1 favorite]


Hand up if you thought you were going to see pictures of people horribly maimed in factory accidents.

Just me, then?
posted by quite unimportant at 6:12 PM on August 8, 2007


Beautiful. Thanks.
posted by tiger yang at 6:40 PM on August 8, 2007


A good companion to Edward Burtynsky

I was thinking that as well - there seems to more ambiguity and less preachyness from this chap though, which is much more welcome.
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:43 PM on August 8, 2007


quite important, my first thought was a photoblog of wounds suffered during Skinny Puppy's current tour.
posted by lekvar at 7:06 PM on August 8, 2007


SCDB: that's sort of what I was thinking, though they're different than the ones around here. Makes sense though.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:38 PM on August 8, 2007


If you're into this, you might also like Reclaiming the American West -- mines and their restoration -- and other stuff by Alan Berger. Oh, and for a few restoration projects, check out the (nascent) website of the DIRT Studio and Julie Bargmann. Cool stuff, thanks!
posted by salvia at 10:29 PM on August 8, 2007 [1 favorite]


I was going to write something sarky, but then read the article about mountain top removal...

Bastards.

(The first site of the post was a bit ¨aggressive¨ wasn´t it? - any chance of a warning?).
posted by lerrup at 10:56 PM on August 8, 2007


No.
posted by homunculus at 11:06 PM on August 8, 2007


Almost makes you forget about all of the ugly mines, doesn't it?
posted by KingoftheWhales at 12:15 AM on August 9, 2007


Lack of context, sometimes lack of scale, lack of explanations. Just photos that are nice photos with poor presentation.
posted by Goofyy at 12:20 AM on August 9, 2007


my first thought was a photoblog of wounds suffered during Skinny Puppy's current tour.

Go Ask Ogre: Letters From A Deathrock Cutter
posted by homunculus at 12:56 AM on August 9, 2007


I was a little disappointed it wasn't human scars. Is that sick?

Still a fascinating link.
posted by agregoli at 8:42 AM on August 9, 2007






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