David Maisel is a photographer from New York, he has many concerns about the politics and aesthetics of radically human-altered environments as he explores the relationship between nature and humanity today. His work focuses on how the landscape and terrain is radically being altered and is hidden from us. Maisel’s images shows us what is really going on behind the scenes as our landscapes are being transformed. He takes his images from an aerial view so the audience can see the true drastic effects we our having on the world, which are being hidden from us and how vastly the landscape has been changed.

I have chosen to study David Maisel because when looking through his projects I can see how they relate to the theme of Anthropocene as he shows how landscapes have been radically transformed. I’m going to focus on his mining project as I think the show how drastically our landscapes are being changed to extract minerals and raw materials. In ‘The Mining Project’ I’m drawn to the images with small patches of colour within the images as they have more depth and have a sense of awe surrounding them. In response I’m going to take images of Ronez quarry.

The Mining Project:

The Mining Project consists of images taken from across the United Sates of sites that have been radically transformed by open pit mining. The Mining Project considers sites like the Berkeley Mine in Butte, Montana, which has an open pit filled with severely poisoned water. Mines from this region are the source of devastating mercury emissions, released when ore is heated during the process of gold extraction. This relates to the theme of Anthropocene as human activity is causing harm to the environment, mainly the food chain because it accumulates in water laid sediments where it converts into toxic methylmercury and enters the food chain.

Analysis:

This is a digital image of a mining site in Montana. The mis-en-scene presents Berkeley Mine in Butte, Montana with polluted water in the centre, which is the focal point of the image. Within the image you can see the contrast in the different tones in the rocks throughout the thirds, getting darker as you go up the image. The use of light is natural and is coming in from the bottom of the image creating a small shadow at the top. The photo has been taken from an aerial view looking down at the quarry/mining site. This enables Maisel to get depth in his image. All of the image is in focus suggesting it was taken with a large depth of field.

For my project I am going to take inspiration from ‘The Mining Project’ and take photos of ronez quarry which extract products used for construction around Jersey.

Photoshoot Plan: