Dispatches from the Abyss

This body of work stems from the 2019 trailing’s dam collapse in Brumadinho, MG killing some 270. I happened to be in the state capital for the month having moved my elderly mother-in-law there to be closer to family. I was able to visit and shoot the aftermath of the disaster with some difficulty but was interested in understanding more about the mining industry, which is the main driver of the economy, in fact the state’s name is Minas Gerais (General Mines) derived from the importance of mining from its colonial past starting at the end of the 16th Century.

While driving around the state I was constantly aware of the mines that dot the landscape. Even the state capital, Belo Horizonte, is ringed by active mines and trailing’s dams. My desire to photograph these mines quickly ran into the reality that it is very difficult to get close to them. The mining companies are very careful to keep their activities hidden from view with fences, security guards and even earthen barriers. I was able to get into some old, abandoned mines and even a couple of active ones, but soon came to the realization that to get what I wanted I needed to get altitude. During the lockdown of 2020 I used the time to get a drone and learn how to use it.

Upon my return to Minas Gerais, I have been able to use my drone to go places I could never have gotten to previously. I am freed from the security guards who would claim that I was walking through an “ecological preserve” though I was walking through a devastated landscape and would escort me away from that day’s mine. Now I need only get close enough to then fly my camera to where it needs to go.

The photos expose a reality that I had never fully understood. The activities used to extract the resources that make our modern life possible come at the expense of places and people. The population who live in proximity to these mines suffer the effects from heavy metals that come in the form of dust and water from these activities not to mention the many tens of thousands who live under the threat of trailing’s dams many of which are classified as code red (risk of imminent collapse) like the one which collapsed in Brumadinho (which was not even code red).

The effects on the environment are profound. There is no reclamation of these sites. There is no way to put the mountains back. The results of modern intensive mining leave the site without any topsoil and unable to sustain life. They have become a dead zone.

The worst is that I realize that I, as are all of us, complicit in this destruction.