Active Mining Taking Place
by Deon Reynolds
Leaving Ely westbound on U.S. 50 one is bombarded with countless signs of mining: railroad cars filled with rock, heavy equipment everywhere you look, not to mention how severely the landscape has been altered. We turned off at Ruth just five miles out of town to visit the Robinson Mine, where I had heard of a viewpoint overlooking a very large open pit mine. Turning on to the road to the view point, this is the first thing you see.
Stopping the car to take this shot, I remember thinking to myself, "If you're that dense you need a sign, how could you possibly read it?" But I did think it made an interesting shot. I was especially drawn to the juxtaposition between the active mining taking place in the background and the sign. Indeed, what could be more clear. Active mining taking place. The viewpoint was a very big depressing hole, and left me uninspired photographically.
I shoot these black and white panoramas with a disposable Kodak panorama camera. The first thing I do is tear off the cardboard cover, pry open the camera, and pull out the color print film. Using a fine file I distort the frame inside. Then I load it with Tri-X black and white film. Some of my disposables have had over a hundred rolls of film through them.
Click here to learn more about Deon's book of photography, Nevada, with essays by Jon Christensen.
Click here to hear a Nevada Public Radio story on active mining taking place in Nevada.