The magazine of the photo-essay
Industrial Scars
by J Henry Fair
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film maker
Industrial Scars is the work of environmentalist and photographer, J Henry
Fair, who brings our attention to the tragic effects created by the human
impact on our planet. At first, his photographs are mesmerisingly beautiful:
taken at bird’s eye perspective from a small plane, their shapes, colours
and details give them an aesthetic quality that entrance and capture the
imagination, yet concern and horror creep in on the realisation of the true
reality of the subject. Our ever-increasing demand for energy, regularly-
changing eating habits and rampant consumerism are rapidly leading to
the degradation of our planet.
Industrial Scars reveals unseen views of the effects of such production on
our environment, exposing the secrets from oil drilling, hydro-fracking and
coal-ash waste, to large scale agricultural production and abandoned mining operations. Each of Fair’s striking images are
accompanied by detailed explanations from award-winning science writer, Lewis Smith, who writes about the effects of
rampant consumerism on our environment and describes the development of industries through time and across the
world. The overall message is clear – Fair is committed to reveal the evidence of the devastating costs of our choices on
our planet. It is up to us to accept a consumer responsibility and environmental awareness, and to change our habits if we
want to ensure a better world for future generations to enjoy.
AROUND KAYFORD MOUNTAIN, WEST VIRGINIA, USA. Coal must be crushed, sized and washed with water before it can
be burned in a power plant. This creates tremendous volumes of fine coal particle ‘slurry’ which is stored in
impoundments created by building an earthen dam across the end of a valley. On numerous occasions, impoundment
dams have failed, releasing large quantities of toxic slurry to devastate the valley below.
LAUSITZ, GERMANY. When coal is burned, various filters and scrubbing apparatus are used to remove pollutants that
cannot be removed from the combustion flue gases. These captured solids and ashes are stored in giant holding pond
impoundments, which are potentially massive human and environmental hazards.
HUGER, SOUTH CAROLINA, USA. Self-propelled slag disposal ‘ladle’ truck dumps molten electric-steelmaking furnace slag
into a disposal pit. This steel ‘mini-mill’ recycles scrap steel into steel beams for the construction industry. Slag consists of
unwanted impurities that float to the top of molten metal during the smelting process. The slag is splashing around a
‘skull’ of solid cooled slag that forms in the ladle during transport.
SPRINGVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, USA. Collection pit for drilling waste containing ground rock, drilling muds (the lubricants
and chemicals used during drilling), and in some cases radioactive material existing in the target shale layer. The
overspray at the top is a violation and a danger to any water bodies downhill.
FORT MCMURRAY, CANADA. The first step in the oil sands process after extraction is ‘upgrading’, in which particulate
matter is removed from the bitumen and its viscosity reduced so that refineries can process it. This is a photograph of
the top of a petroleum tank, with a walkway out to the covered inspection hatch in the centre. This tank stores 400,000
to 500,000 barrels of the world’s dirtiest oil, obtained by excavating large areas of Canadian tar sands.
GULF OF MEXICO, USA. Oil floating on the Gulf of Mexico from BP Deepwater Horizon spill at the Macondo well.
Published here with permission from Papadakis, Industrial Scars© 2016 by J Henry Fair,
RRP £30. Available online and from all good bookshops.
GULF OF MEXICO, USA. Oil collected from BP Deepwater Horizon spill being burned in the Gulf of Mexico. The skimmers
that collect the oil often capture marine fauna such as turtles and dolphins that are also burned in this disposal process.
GULF OF MEXICO, USA. Drill rig Q4000 with flare burning gases captured from the leaking BP Macondo well a mile below
the surface. Another ship is spraying water on the flare to keep the heat from damaging the equipment or injuring
personnel.
GRAMERCY, LOUISIANA, USA. Waste impoundment at aluminium refinery. Aluminium is the most widely mined and used
metal after iron. It is soft, light, durable, corrosion-resistant and an excellent conductor of temperature and electricity. It
is vital to world aerospace, construction, container and transportation industries. Its mining, production and
consumption has global reach.
DARROW, LOUISIANA, USA. This ‘red mud’ waste from the processing of bauxite ore is the same type of toxic material
that spilled south of Budapest in 2010, flowing into the River Marcal, killing all the wildlife there, before flowing into and
poisoning the Danube. The more than one million cubic metres of waste could only be completely neutralized by one
million cubic metres of strong acid, an ironic thing to have to pour into a river in an attempt to save it.
LACEYVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, USA. After drilling is complete, the second stage of hydrofracking involves arraying multiple
high-pressure compressors around the well head and pressurising the drill holes with millions of gallons of water and
toxic chemicals to fracture the shale layer far below the ground in order to release the natural gas trapped there.
KIRUNA, SWEDEN. Waste impoundment at Kiruna Iron Mine. The Kiruna Mine draws on the world’s largest underground
deposit of magnetite, a rich ore containing 60 per cent iron as well as unwanted rock that is separated and disposed of
in large waste impoundments.
SHIPPINGPORT, PENNSYLVANIA, USA. This coal ash dump on the Pennsylvania/West Virginia border is the largest in the
USA. It is one of the ‘high hazard’ coal ash impoundments. If it fails, like the smaller one in Kingston Tennessee did in
2008, it would cause loss of life and property.
BURNS HARBOR, INDIANA, USA. The iron ore, coke fuel and limestone flux at upper left are processed and blended in the
buildings connected by conveyor belt housings in the foreground. Then they are transported to the tops of the two tall
blast furnaces at right via the long diagonal conveyors and charged into the furnaces for smelting to molten iron.
WILLISTON, NORTH DAKOTA, USA. Hydro-fracking compressor trucks and trailers of fracking fluids arrayed around well
head at Bakken shale oil well. Here they are fracturing the shale layer for oil instead of natural gas.
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See the trailer for Industrial Scars on Youtube