Award-Winning Photos Peer Into Some of the World’s Deepest Mines

Real Hacker Staff

March 18, 2025

Award-Winning Photos Peer Into Some of the World’s Deepest Mines

“The Chamber of Absence — Where the Vacuum Descends into Hollowness. Sierra Gorda Copper Mine, Antofagasta, Chile Feb 2024.” © Lorenzo Poli

London-based photography platform Life Framer’s Series Award winners showcase environmental issues and moving portraiture.

Since 2013, Life Framer has run photography competitions with monthly and yearly calls for entries and gallery exhibitions around the world. Life Framer shares an impressive list of prestigious judges and shows.

“Now in our eleventh annual Edition, our past judges have included Martin Parr, Alex Prager, Bruce Gilden, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Olivia Arthur, along with curators and editors from MoMA, Tate Modern and the International Center of Photography, and exhibitions have been held in locations such as London, New York, Milan, Tokyo and Paris,” Life Framer explains.

The platform’s latest celebration of creative photography showcases the winners of the Series Award “designed to recognize exceptional bodies of photography of any subject or genre.”

Lisa Woodward and Mia Dalglish, co-curators at Pictura Gallery in Bloomington, Indiana, judged the competition. The winner will receive a solo exhibition in September 2025 at the Pictura Gallery at the FAR Center for the Contemporary Arts.

The Series Award has two winners, with first prize going to Lorenzo Poli for his series “Spirals of the Anthropocene.” Poli’s series features vast landscapes highlighting the issue of resource mining in South America. Beyond documentation, his work uses aerial perspectives to show the scars of mining across the landscape.

“Frontlines of Ambition — Human endurance encroaching into jagged terrains of extraction. La Rinconada Gold Mine, Peru, November 2024.” © Lorenzo Poli

“The Kingdom of Accumulation — The unending horizons of expansive extractivist empires. Escondida Copper Mine, Antofagasta Chile, February 2024. The Escondida Mine, is renowned as the largest copper mine in the world.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Glacial Orb — The Silent witness to the unrelentless extractivist ambitions. La Rinconada Gold Mine, Peru, November 2024.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Minted Icon – 1840 — The globalized materialization of a sterling Treasure. Since 1545, Cerro Rico’s silver fuelled globalized colonial trade to Europe, Manila, the Ming Dynasty, and beyond. It financed wars, and empires of slavery. At its peak, Potosi supplied 60% of the world’s silver, embedding plata and argent as synonyms for wealth in Latin America and French colonies.” © Lorenzo Poli

“The Nine Circles of Hell — Illustration for The Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy by A. Kopisch, 1842. Ed E. Buchhandlung (F. Müller). Limbo, for virtuous pagans, in sorrow eternally. Lust, souls blown by violent winds. Gluttony, gluttons in vile slush. Greed, with hoarders & squanderers pushing weights. Wrath, with the angry fighting and sullen submerged. Heresy, with heretics in flaming tombs. Violence, split into rings of blood, trees, and burning sand. Fraud, in ten ditches of torments. Treachery, in icy Lake Cocytus. Web image upscaled via Gigapixel AI.” © Lorenzo Poli

“The Mountain of Silver — The skeleton of minted Globalization, Cerro Rico – Bolivia 1545. Cerro Rico looms over the Bolivian plateau like a hollowed ghost, its sterling veins once pulsing with the imperial riches of globalization. Beneath its shimmering prosperity lies a maze of tunnels spiraling into endless voids, with layers of toxic amalgams stratified into the hillsides. Mercuric fumes, silicosis, and caves-in plague miners past and present, and have left a toll of millions over five centuries (E. Galeano).” © Lorenzo Poli

“Mining Infinity — The unending spiralling of anthropocentric ambitions. Sierra Gorda Copper Mine, Antofagasta, Chile, December 2023.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Earthly Womb — Where cosmic winds and human ambition converge. Chuquicamata Main Mine pit, Atacama, Chile, February 2024. The second largest open-pit copper mine in the world by excavated volume and the second deepest, reaching depths of approximately 1,000 meters.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Shell of the Anthropocene. — The sedimentary processes of monumental mining depositions. Chuquicamata Mine. Atacama, Chile, February 2024.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Self-organizing Geographies — Terraforming patterns of sprawling tailings. The emergent patterns of life’s transcendent resilience. Chuquicamata Mine, Atacama, Chile, November 2023. Self-organizing patterns emerge from the waste rock deposit at the edge of the of one of the largest extractive operations on the planet. Mines emerges from the ground as new complex systems. While instigated and managed by human decision-making, the intricate dance of emergent granular choreographies transcend human-scale control, human intent and natural order seems to converge.” © Lorenzo Poli

“The Circles of Hell — Where sins take form. Escondida Copper Mine, Antofagasta, Chile, December 2023.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Arteries of Ambition — The relentless pulse of globalized flows. Cerro Verde Copper Mine, Arequipa, Peru, November 2024.” © Lorenzo Poli

“Gridded Impermanence — Cycles of extraction overwhelming life and death. Chuquicamata Mine and miners’ settlement, Atacama, Chile, November 2023. The cemetery, the abandoned miners’ settlement being swallowed by the unending expansion of the mine.” © Lorenzo Poli

The jurors were moved by Poli’s use of space to connect the viewer to this critical environmental issue.

“It’s not easy to conceptualize the sheer amount of ground covered by the mines. But in Poli’s photographs, we start to feel it. Humans have built things of an extraordinary scale, and Poli shows our ability to dismantle at an equally formidable level,” they described.

The largest copper mine in the world, Escondida Copper Mine in Antofagasta, Chile, and other mines across Chile and Peru are shown in almost mythic proportions. In some images, the mining settlements offer a sense of scale to the almost alien-like mine’s terraformed gouges.

Lorenzo Poli describes his work:

“This photographic investigation is a personal reflection on human values and how they carve into the Land. As a European architect expanding into the metaphysical realms of the visual arts, I traversed South America’s mining territories for 18 months in search of meaning.

I sought to engage with the spiritual dimensions of our epoch, immersing myself in monumental voids descending into the Earth. What emerged transcended the commodification of minerals; these voids stand as testaments to humanity’s aspirations.”

The second prize in the Life Framer Series Award goes to Pie Aerts for his series “Los Puesteros.” Aerts’ series is named after and documents a small group of men living in the remote Southern regions of Chilean Patagonia known as “puesteros.” Living in such a remote location, this collection explores humanity and the loneliness, social inequality, and struggles with mental health issues that the puesteros face.

“Adan, once a Puestero himself, shares his passion for the gaucho tradition through horseback tours for tourists on his small estate. While he embraces the region’s transformation into a tourist destination, he believes that teaching the next generation is essential for preserving the heritage.” © Pie Aerts

“Oscar’s outpost recently burned to the ground, leaving him without a home.” © Pie Aerts

“Hugo calls his 95-year-old mum every day, checking in on her to make sure she is warm and doing okay. He’s decided that whilst his mother is still alive, he will not pursue a romantic relationship, as she is the only woman in his life worth making the time for.” © Pie Aerts

“Where his role as a puestero once carried deep cultural meaning and earned him respect, Rene now feels invisible and alienated.” © Pie Aerts

“In a culture rooted in strength, endurance and the denial of emotion, these puesteros oscillate between preserving their heritage and accepting its gradual disappearance.” © Pie Aerts

“What is the true value of a life that still carefully balances the connection between mankind and nature?” © Pie Aerts

“Conversations about mental health are uncommon among Chilean men of this generation. After decades of silence, some of these men are becoming more open about the impact this lifestyle has had on their mental health. In doing so, they break the stigma surrounding the stoic character of the traditional gaucho.” © Pie Aerts

“Danilo had to adapt his life when a failed surgery left him in a coma. He constantly worries about his missing pension, as his weakened body can no longer endure the rigors of horseback work, and with no family to rely on, he faces an uncertain future.” © Pie Aerts

“Worn down by wind, snow, and rain, and often in decay, these puestos have become symbols of strength and resilience.” © Pie Aerts

“Puestos, or ‘outposts,’ play a vital role in the lives of these ‘puesteros.’ Originally built as simple shelters for nomadic farmers, these puestos hold deep emotional significance.” © Pie Aerts

“How does loneliness play a role in the changing relationship humanity has with our natural environment?” © Pie Aerts

“Pedro spent most of his 64 years living at the most remote puesto, in complete isolation. He had visions and struggled with suicidal thoughts until one day he followed an endless light into the deepest valley. The proper medication and a move to a less remote post ultimately saved his life.” © Pie Aerts

“After 18 years working at the same outpost, Santana lost his job due to excessive drinking. Well past retirement age, he was forced to move to the big city in search of new work. He struggles to fit in and as a result, sinks deeper into his heavy alcohol addiction.” © Pie Aerts

“Juan clings to his puesto as much as he does to his culture and traditions. A sanctuary in a harsh landscape and a piece of stability in a rapidly changing world. How long these sacred structures will endure remains uncertain.” © Pie Aerts

“These men spent their entire lives in places they never owned, and when they are no longer physically able to work, they are forced to move to ‘regular society,’ leading lives they’ve never known, a breeding ground for mental health problems” © Pie Aerts

“Luis, who often goes for months without speaking to anyone other than his dogs, struggles with the effects of isolation and loneliness. His traumatic family history and the consequences of his adoption drove him, at the age of 20, as far away from home as possible. After living alone for more than 40 years, he recently survived a severe fall from his horse, which nearly left him disabled.” © Pie Aerts

“These are not quick portraits made in passing. The unguarded expressions in the eyes of the men and in their gestures are the fruit of time spent with a person. If photography can open the window to really see a person, it’s in this kind of portraiture,” the jurors said.

In Pie Aerts’ artist statement, he explains more about the lives of the puesteros and how they inspired his work:

“In the remote south of Chilean Patagonia, a small group of “puesteros” lives in complete isolation. Decades of seclusion and exploitation have taken a heavy toll, leaving these men struggling with profound mental health issues. Barely any social interaction, backbreaking physical labor, a shifting climate, financial insecurity and a lack of retirement provisions, fuel high degrees of alcoholism and suicide within the community. Yet, despite the consistent hardships, these men face the erosion of their culture and fading identity with remarkable dignity, resilience, and pride.

I aim to pay tribute to what may be the last generation of “puesteros.” At the same time, I hope to challenge the viewer to question established, traditional notions of masculinity, and ultimately, to reflect on their own personal relationship with nature, culture, and tradition.”

Image credits: Photographs by Lorenzo Poli, Pie Aerts. Courtesy of Life Framer and Pictura Gallery.

Source link