A Chinese photographer, Lu Guang, has won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documenting of the severe environmental pollution affecting China. A selection of his photographs has been published by China Hush: here's a small sample.
There are many more at the link. China Hush has also published a very interesting interview with Lu Guang. Recommended reading.
It's a sobering thought that in meeting our demand for cheap consumer goods, China has polluted itself so badly that many of her people are now facing critical health problems. We haven't just exported jobs overseas; we've exported the pollution that goes with mass production as well. Nations like China haven't had the years of experience and social action that we've had to put in place controls to prevent that pollution affecting their people.
Peter
USA did the same thing to itself, seems to be a pattern to this sort of thing. Living in Pittsburgh, I see the results of it everyday (not from now, but the past... even in my house I still have soot and grime in my attic from the main steel days. House is a Sears house from the late 20s.)
ReplyDeleteThey hid it well for the Olympics, but it's back to normal (VERY bad) now..
ReplyDeleteThe sky isn't even blue over there!
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for those living there...
These pictures, particularly the bottom one, remind me of the images taken by photographer Lewis Hine around the turn of the 20th Century in the U.S. Same sort of problem, but unlike America, without the ability for activists to mobilize and change things in response to the images.
ReplyDeleteArchie
I remember seeing those old photos, Archie, and you are correct.
ReplyDeleteThat first one could be sold to a tabloid as an actual picture of Hell.
Antibubba