Centered Journeys

“Journey to Our Center” is a piece from Chris' “Nature Reclaimed” project, which explores the tensions inherent in classically beautiful landscapes existing in the context of man’s land development. The project includes reclaimed quarries, brownfields, factories, recreated wetlands, man made reservoirs, and the like, photographed with traditional landscape aesthetics. It exists in the context of ying/yang dynamics between ecological conservation and earth stewardship vs. the practicality of civilization's needs and usage of natural resources.

This particular photo was made more than a mile underground in what is touted the “world’s largest underground marble mine.” Harkening back to Jules Verne, this mysterious place has been bored into the bedrock of sedimentary rock metamorphosed into coveted building material. Like the original stone, the mining process has occurred in layers over many years. Some of the abandoned items, created topologies, and newly formed arteries are no longer realized. Some such mines have been reclaimed as fish hatcheries (eg, arctic char), some house waste, some continue to be worked, some naturally created spaces create sinkholes that swallow up entire dwellings. The effects on the water tables of surrounding communities is not always immediately known. What lies beneath, in our various catacombs, can ignite the imagination and even catch us unaware.