As a kid growing up in the US and Canada during the 1990’s, I was lucky enough to have an actual childhood that involved exploring the outdoors, riding bikes, and playing sports with all the kids in the neighborhood. TV and video games were around but the main focus was still towards outdoor activities. But when I did watch TV, my favorite channels were always Discovery and TLC. I remember watching shows about big machines involved in mining operations and I was amazed at how massive the dump trucks were. My father is a mining engineer which is probably why I had an interest in that field.
With all that dirt, rock, and raw material being hauled away by the massive machinery, have you actually wondered exactly how much metals are actually extracted? We always hear numbers thrown around but it’s kind of hard to actually visualize it. Well, visualize no more because Dillon Marsh, photographer and artist from Cape Town, describes his latest project “For What It’s Worth” as an attempt to quantify mining, “an industry that has shaped the history and economy of the country so radically.”
To start the ‘For What It’s Worth’ project, the photographer took photos of five famous mines and then used data about the extraction rates, calculated a single, solid orb to represent the amount of metal that had been mined in total over the course of the mining operation. It’s actually pretty interesting to see what all of the metal looks like in one place. I don’t know about you but I was expecting a much bigger orb of metal.
For more examples of Dillon Marsh’s work, visit his website.
