Mining landscapes have always felt to me like torn skin. Words like ore body, lode, vein, and seam populate the mining lexicon. In these works, both the human body and the earth's body become connected.

Developing on from his recent project Red Creeper, these new photographs apply infra-red simulated post-production aesthetics. Blending reality with fiction, simultaneously highlighting how mining activity extensively transformed the landscape of Cornwall. These photographs turn the scarred landscape an eerie crimson and turn mining mine runoff iridescent cyan or blue.

At Levant mine (West Cornwall) in 1919, the man engine failure killed 31 men and injured over 130 others. The reciprocating lifting machine (called the Man Engine) ladders failed and sent the miners crashing into the depths of the mine.

During the past and present and behind each tonne of extraction there is often is a story of contamination and depletion of water, destruction of habitats, poisoning of both the land and human beings. Combined with environmental conflicts, political and colonial issues and widespread human rights violations mining brings to the fore complex discourses.

Confronting a consumer culture that renders ecosystems and those that rely on them disposable is a challenge within the framework of the climate emergency. The demand for copper and other mined minerals is set to increase exponentially. At the heart of the current climate, emergency sits a key question: who will pay the price for the devastating impacts of the new wave of extraction being planned across the globe.