Tales from the City of Gold

In sensitive landscapes, British photographer Jason Larkin explores the vast tailings, waste dumps created by Johannesburg's historic gold-mining industry, a territory where history, economy, and contemporary South Africa collide.

Over the decades, life on and around these dormant and toxic remains has developed. However, as the price of gold escalates, the latent gold in older dumps makes reprocessing of these historic mounds an economic reality. The removal is seen by most as positive, but for the thousands whose lives have developed around them, life is uncertain as Johannesburg moves into a new chapter of its ongoing history.

Jason Larkin (b.1979 in the UK) is regularly internationally published and recently was awarded the Arnold Newman New Portraiture Award. He was nominated for both the Deutsche Börse and Prix Pictet photography awards for ‘Cairo Divided&;, a freely-distributed publication. Exhibitions include the Brighton Photo Biennial, Farnsworth Art Museum, Maine, and Flowers Gallery, London.

Julian Rodriguez is currently head of the media department at Falmouth College, UK. He is also a nominator for the Prix Pictet for photo journalism and judges the Sony Impact Awards. He has written on Photography for the National Portrait Gallery, London; the British Journal of Photography; Photo District News and many other outlets.

After graduating from the University of British Columbia, Mara Kardas-Nelson decided to pursue her latent dream of becoming a journalist, and has since been published in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa. Her interests are in health, the environment, women's rights and labour issues. Mara is also active with AIDS and public health organizations across North America and internationally.