LENS
46·407676°, –87·530954°
Iron Ore Mine Tailings Pond,
Michigan, USA
What is the biggest insight that you gained in
initiating such a project?
I’ve learned so much about human nature and our
activities around the world. That has been the focus of the
imagery pretty much all the time, showing the places where
we impact the planet. Nearly every single day for four years,
I’ve tried to find new and interesting stories to show. The
different themes that would come up—agriculture, energy,
mining, urban planning, transportation or waste—these
are all prominent parts of modern civilization as we know
it. But these are often things that we don't think about on a
daily basis. My knowledge about the world and what we’re
doing to it has been greatly expanded by doing this project.
And we’ll continue expanding it.
“I am hopeful.
In addition to seeing
all of the negative
things and all of the
destruction that we’ve
caused, it’s also clear
that solutions exist.”
Are you hopeful about the future of the planet based
from these photos?
I am hopeful. In addition to seeing all of the negative
things and all of the destruction that we’ve caused, it’s also clear
that solutions exist: renewable energy instead of dirty energy,
or thoughtful, sustainable agriculture versus something that is
monoculture and destructive, and there's sma rt city planning.
From these images, you can glean that there are solutions
and new directions that we can take things. I’m inherently
an optimistic person, as you can probably guess by doing a
project like this. Some scientists might disagree, but I think
you have to be optimistic if you want to create a better future.
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