Daylin Paul captures a Broken Land
Set in Mpumalanga, Daylin Paul’s exhibition, Broken Land, captures the devastating and lasting impact power stations have on the environment and the health of those who live closest to them.
The province is home to 12 coal-burning power stations, the Secunda CTS, and dozens of coal mines built to feed South Africa’s insatiable hunger for power. “These power stations not only contribute to global climate change but also poison the air and water. The air quality in Mpumalanga is now among the very worst in the world,” Paul said.
Showing at the Wits Art Museum until 27 October, the exhibition goes beyond documenting the cost of extracting and burning coal in Mpumalanga’s power station belt to personalising the experience of the local people who are on the front lines of this crisis.
Paul, an independent photographer, writer and educator is the 2017 winner of the prestigious Ernest Cole Award for Photography for the ongoing documentary. The ongoing photography series saw him venture into the Highveld to not only capture the scale of the destruction in the province’s landscape but also shed light on the effect this has on the people whose stories are more important, tragic and beautiful than the landscape in which they exist.
“I have spent countless hours driving around Mpumalanga, stopping where I saw something or someone and starting a conversation. I’m still amazed at how open and sincere almost all the people I met along this journey were. How willing to share their lives and theirs feeling with a total stranger,” he said.
Paul said he initially hoped to make an exhaustive, encyclopedic documentation of the situation on the Highveld but saw that he would possibly spend 10 years working on the project and still only scratch the surface. 24 OCT 27 OCT 27 OCT 28 OCT “It is a calamity the size of an entire province and it continues to grow on a daily basis both in Mpumalanga and across the globe as we sleepwalk ever closer toward climate catastrophe,” Paul said.
Usually, reports about climate change are usually scientific and do not relay the real lived experiences of vulnerable people. Broken Land essentially amplifies the voices of those who entrusted Paul with their stories. “The images that I’ve made, the people that I’ve talked to and the time I’ve spent out on the field was me making it real for us as South Africans. These are our people that are suffering and until we start thinking about that, nothing will ever get better,” he said
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