Editing Optics Division

"In 2010 artists Lauren Bon, Tristan Duke and Richard Nielsen formed the Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio, a project devoted to exploring photography as a social and environmental practice. As a part of the larger mission of the Metabolic Studio, this work has focused on infrastructure, ecosystems, and the reorganization of communities around stewardship of water, especially in the Intermountain West.
Over the last decade the Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio has sought to recontextualize photography as a land-based practice. One landscape in particular has been central to this project: the Owens Valley of California. Starting in the 1860’s, through to the 1950s large amounts of silver was mined from the mountains surrounding the Owens Valley. In this same period the water resources of the Owens Valley would be tapped to supply the growing metropolis of Los Angles. The extraction of silver and water have left a legacy of environmental destruction.
And the industry of photography and film has played an unlikely role in this story. Silver is a major ingredient used to manufacture of film, and much of the silver mined in the Owens Valley would be shipped to Eastman Kodak in Rochester for this purpose. At the peak of production in the late 20th century film manufacturing accounted for more than half of the world’s global consumption of this metal. Soon the silver deposits of the Owens Valley were depleted, and the mines abandoned, leaving polluted ghost towns in their wake."

from [https://www.metabolicstudio.org/optics-division Optics Division's webpage]