Mountaintop Removal Mining, Wise County, Virginia, 2012

From: £250.00

Appalachia: from Mountaintops to Moonscapes looks at the effects of mountaintop removal mining on the environment and local communities in Wise County, Virginia.

Mountaintop removal is a cheaper and less labour-intensive alternative to deep shaft mining that is destroying the local economy, devastating the environment, and harming people.  The tell-tale craters, circled with access roads, have been created by explosions aimed at removing the top layers to reveal the coal seams beneath.  The air as far as the eye can see is thick with dust.  Here and there outcrops of trees cling to the mountainside, remnants of the lush boreal forest that once blanketed the mountain.  In the foreground, the veil of grass cultivated from fast-growing hydroseed shows that the reclamation process has begun.  However, this falls far short of what would be needed to recreate the centuries-in-the-making biome that existed before mining began.

In her essay for the photobook activist Jane Branham writes, “If they keep mining coal, it will be so toxic here you will not be able to survive…it is going to take thousands of years for this earth to heal itself. It takes 100 years to form one inch of topsoil, so do the math.”

This image was exhibited at the Fishing Quarter Gallery, Brighton, as part of Alan Gignoux’s solo exhibition Bruised Lands in 2019.  It is included in the multimedia work Appalachia: From Mountaintops to Moonscapes, which was exhibited in film festivals internationally and shortlisted for the AOP Awards (2016). It is included in Appalachia: Mountaintops to Moonscapes, the photobook based on images from the project.  Originally available at The Photographers’ Gallery (London), Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool), and Impressions Gallery (Bradford), the photobook is now sold out.

Available in two sizes, printed on fine art quality Canson Arches 88 paper:

A0 – Edition of 5

A3 – Edition of 10