Images taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/sep/07/tarnished-earth-oil-sands
I felt I should show all the images for this piece of work as i think they work very well as a set Photographed by jiri rezac. The image were taken for Greenpeace in Canada
The above image would be hard to read bar the small vessel breaking the overall form of the picture. Oil reflecting on the water caught by the suns rays shows the level of pollution. in a strange way the image has a calming feel. I don’t understand why this is due to the magnitude of the problem
The fine line of good and evil. Capturing the syntax of the scale of the problem
The lighting is excellent on the image. I connect strongly with the figure of this picture. It is used to scare away migrating birds. Do i connect more with it because it is the only thing i can relate to first hand. It’s as though the Oil scare crow warns of now and what is to come.
This image made me think of the Agent Orange shot you see of Vietnam
The clearing show what the scarecrow was warning of…
Again going back to not questioning what we can relate to. This could be any factory in the world but without the other images we do not challenge what see. “The medium is the message“ is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan. These images need no words…
Creeping slowly the black dark toxic evil challenged what was right in the green purity.
What i find more shocking about this is the images arent from some oil rich african state or under hard time former eastern bloc country but Canada. You think of Canada you think of hills lakes and wildlife. I’m sure that if this type of thing was taken place in America it would be a different story. This was a hard searched story in the guardian. Where the disaster That has involved B.P off the coast of Florida is there for everyone to see.
ALAN WHITFIELD 
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