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City of Sound is about cities, design, architecture, music, media, politics and more. Written by Dan Hill since 2001.

Sublime visions

Written in

March 6, 2006

Dan Hill

I can’t shift these images from my mind. Two particular sets of recently-linked-to photographs which, although very different, seem connected in some way. They are both bystanders to an entwining of natural processes and human engineering. And both sets of images are sublime, but in the original fearful, awe-inspiring sense of the word.

First, the first six or seven photographs of Chinese agriculture in Guangxi province, linked to via BLDGBLOG.

Guangxi photograph

Secondly, Edward Burtynsky’s Shipbreaking images, mainly taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Edward Burtynsky Shipbreaking photograph

7 responses to “Sublime visions”

Troy Worman

March 6, 2006

Wow! These are amazing photos. Thanks for sharing. They are going to be difficult to get out of my head.

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Anonymous

March 8, 2006

To Soar

These photographs are jaw-dropping. Get me to China!
(Courtesy of City of Sound)

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Dr_Sticky

March 10, 2006

More shipbreaking photos by Norwegian photographer Rune Larson here:
http://www.drik.net/rune/gallery.htm
His gallery has a more human focus than the terrain vague melancholy of Burtynsky. Hence the images become a far more guilty pleasure…

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JamesB

March 17, 2006

The shipbreaking photos are almost surreal in their scale – and similar in scale to the photos of ore mining in Latin America. This is also a monstrous ‘materiality’. And aside from the fact it gives some relief to an increasingly stark international division of labour, it also highlights the life cycle of materials and how economic necessity can often be the most effective cause of recycling.
Not only are the poorest people adding greatest ‘value’ to the global economy, they’re also responsible for the re-use / recycling of materials we consider to be uneconomic and beyond use.

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Jean

March 18, 2006

J’admire comme vous utilisez si bien ce qui est devant vous , même des ruines .
Vos photos sont des oeuvres d’art !

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Mountain 7

April 30, 2006

Trackback: To Soar from Mountain7: “These photographs are jaw-dropping. Get me to China!” [Read More]

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Gucci bag charms

April 6, 2011

i come from NanNing GuangXi. Moved to see my hometown.^

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