A mine at Broken Hill
2009
Inkjet on watercolour paper
70 x 52 centimeters
Broken Hill, a mining town in western New South Wales, is a fascinating urban environment; a massive slag heap dominates the skyline, there's an abundance of derelict mining operations, a lot of the houses are cheaply built from corrugated iron, the streets are laid out in a relentless grid and are named after minerals and it can become very hot during the summer months.
I chose this site located along the highway leading into town because I liked the structure of the imposing minehead, the bluestone wall, and the road allowed me insert that icon of remote Australia, the truck. Additionally, the wall permitted the inclusion of grafitti; it wasn't there in reality but it looked like it could be.
I moved the sky in the composition so that it counterbalanced the strong diagonal of the wall, thus framing the truck. I found the miserable narrow footpath to be a pedestrian's nightmare, hence the poor female figure had to endure what I did whilst looking around and taking photos.