The Afterglow of Industry

In advance of the US publication of a substantial monograph on his work, The Afterglow of Industry: New Zealand Photographs 2012-2022, we are delighted to present a survey exhibition of Chris Corson-Scott’s photographs, comprising several earlier photographs from this body of work alongside new works not seen before. Chris Corson-Scott produces haunting images that sit within a global conceptual discourse focussed on the international structures that facilitate wealth extraction from individual countries’ natural resources, the ways in which these give rise to cycles of development and decay, and how the quest for sustainable development in this century will collide with these structures.

The photographs ask us to pay attention to the future of human occupation of our planet; and consider how the quest for sustainable development in this century will collide with these structures. Reminding us of our collective dependence upon the natural world, his images are hard-won. Unsettling juxtapositions of historic industry within the reclaiming natural world are uncovered by diligent research and multi-day hikes lugging an 8 x 10 camera, capturing the past before it disappears entirely.