Michael Naify (United States)
Title: Untitled
Medium: Archival Digital Print
Date of work: 2019
Dimensions: 18” x 27”
Description:
This image is from the 2019 tailings (mining waste) dam collapse in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil, which killed 270 people. Michael Naify happened to be visiting at the time and photographed the aftermath of the disaster. The state’s name, General Mines in English, derives from its colonial past and the mineral extraction boom there initiated in the 16th Century. Extractive industry dominates the landscape today.
Although mining companies are very careful to keep their activities hidden from view using fences, security guards and even earthen barriers to keep people out, Naify was able to access both abandoned and active mines eventually using drones to document these devastated landscapes from above. His photos expose how the reality of resource extraction that makes our modern life possible comes at the expense of land and people, contaminating air and water. Many also live under constant threat of a collapse of a dam created by mining waste (called tailings).
The effects on the environment are profound. There is no rehabilitation of these sites. These extractive processes leave the land unable to sustain life. Naify came to the realization that he, and all of us, are complicit in this destruction.