PROJECTS Archive - gignouxphotos.com

APPALACHIA: FROM MOUNTAINTOPS TO MOONSCAPES

The ancient mountain forests of Appalachia are being felled. What remains is an eerie, barren, and lunar landscape of rough-hewn rock. Alan Gignoux witnesses the devastating effects of mountaintop removal in America’s coal heartland.

MONUMENTS: OPENCAST COAL MINING IN GERMANY

Opencast coal mining has led to the destruction of hundreds of German villages over the last century. Germany has promised to phase out coal by 2038, but extraction continues, and the future of several villages hangs in the balance. Alan’s images for Monuments document the communities earmarked for demolition.

LIMBO: “YOU CAN SEE ME, BUT I DON’T EXIST.”

Alan Gignoux uses a camera obscura to photograph migrants in Europe, who are rendered invisible by their unresolved status and the EU’s inability to decide upon a cooperative and coordinated response to the migrant crisis.

HUMAN ACCUMULATIONS: A CAUTIONARY TALE

Once a symbol of natural magnificence, Niagara Falls has been fought over by businessmen and officials seeking to profit from the waterfalls for industry and tourism, and conservationists wanting to protect it. Human Accumulations explores the fall from grace of one of America’s most famous icons.

OIL SANDS: CURSE OR BLESSING?

Alan Gignoux has been investigating the complex issues surrounding the Albertan oil industry since 2010. His photographs record the ruthless exploitation of a valuable natural resource, as well as the explosive economic growth in the region.

RUSSIAN RUST BELT: THE LEGACY OF SOVIET INDUSTRIALISATION

The Urals industrial region was once the driving force behind the Soviet economy. Now it is suffering from economic decline and severe environmental degradation. Alan Gignoux visited the region in 2009 during a residency sponsored by the Russian NCCA (National Centre for Contemporary Art).

SAHARAWI: INHABITANTS OF THE DESERT

Over 25 years after the ceasefire between the Polisario Front and Morocco, the Western Sahara still awaits the referendum that will determine its fate – independence, or unification with Morocco. Alan Gignoux looks at how the traditionally nomadic Saharawi have adapted to settled life in refugee camps in the harsh desert of southwest Algeria.

HOMELAND LOST: THE PALESTINIANS

In Homeland Lost Alan Gignoux juxtaposes portraits of Palestinian refugees with photographs of their former homes or villages in what is today Israel. Homeland Lost is Alan’s most widely exhibited body of work.