It is amazing to me how awful and yet compelling many environmental disaster images can be. I’ve spent a number of hours flying over forestlands at low altitudes. Few people can imagine how frightening and threatening the images of mine tailings can be (I’m thinking of copper mine tailings in the upper Midwest). The colors and shapes they form are visually arresting, and the potential harm they can cause is frightening.
Let us not forget, it takes a photographer eye’s to freeze these images for others to share; and their replication and dissemination by other mechanical means. Walter Benjamin had some interesting reflections on this.
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