Goldmine (Mahdia, Guyana)
2015
Photograph
In this unstaged photograph, the seemingly bucolic scene is shattered by the sight of the CAT excavator, and the realization that this mountainous landscape is from within an open-pit goldmine. Referencing European 19th century pastoral paintings—and a time when treasure-hunting was celebrated as a God-given right—this captured moment presents the historical fantasy along with the persistent destruction of land and people.