Dusted

The remains of mining's power over the land are ever-present, from growth to collapse, reclamation and current advancements. Dusted grew out of my need to address and question this complex and expanding history of mining in the American West.

Within my hometown, the remains of mining’s power over the land are ever-present, from growth to collapse, reclamation and current advancements. Growing up in the shadow of Sutter's Mill and the California Gold Rush, my life was informed by the history of mining as it shaped the world around me. Traveling across California, Nevada and Arizona this history took new shapes as the ravaged and toxic land spread for miles. Dusted grew out of my need to address and question this complex and expanding history of mining in Western America.

Developing Dusted through the forsaken mining lands of Western America, I found the complex narratives of history tend to focus on glory and not the failures and destruction of the past, in doing so this history continues the exploitation of the present. I experienced these continuing ideas of Manifest Destiny perpetually pursued within these mining companies as they take land, deplete resources, shutter, and move on, leaving an abandoned populous and a chopped toxic landscape all among stolen land. Seeing and experiencing this devastation, I was charged to convey this story. In photographing the land and people and utilizing historical writings, I seek to bring together a narrative that responds to and conveys the true effects of mining and challenge the words of the past, while revealing what was left in the wake of false promises and hopes created in these conquests.