David Maisel’s Stunning, Abstract Aerials Document Environmental Destruction

By on April 22, 2013

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Terminal Mirage 18, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

Black Maps is San Francisco-based photographer David Maisel‘s new book of over 100 photographs spanning his career. The book combines various aerial projects documenting environmentally impacted sites; land that has been transformed and altered by industrial efforts—mining, logging, water reclamation, and military testing.

Maisel’s photographs are stunning in their beauty and challenging in their reveal. They capture the complex relationship between the natural world and the humans that intervene; a relationship that forever begs for balance. Maisel describes the sites as “contemplative gardens of our time, places that offer the opportunity to reflect on who and what we are collectively, as a society.”

Published by Steidl, Black Maps will be released on April 1, 2013.

David_Maisel_PhotographyTerminal Mirage 2, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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Terminal Mirage 5, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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The Lake Project 16, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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Terminal Mirage 24, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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Oblivion 18n, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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American Mine (Carlin, NV 1), David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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The Mining Project (Butte MT 3), David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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Terminal Mirage 15 (Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty), David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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The Lake Project 20, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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Black Maps (Bingham Canyon, Utah 2), David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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American Mine (Carlin, Nevada 22), David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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Terminal Mirage 17, David Maisel/INSTITUTE

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