I started my journey 30 years ago. And I worked in mines. And I realized that this was a world unseen. And I wanted, through color and large format cameras and very large prints, to make a body of work that somehow became symbols of our use of the landscape, how we use the land. And to me this was a key component that somehow, through this medium of photography, which allows us to contemplate these landscapes, that I thought photography was perfectly suited to doing this type of work.
三十年前,我展開了我的旅程 在礦場中,我發現到 那是個我們平時所看不到的世界 因此我想要用色彩,超廣角相機 和超大的照片 做為一個主體 它象徵了 這些人造景觀的使用 讓我們知道,我們土地是如何被利用的 對我來說, 這是一個非常關鍵的部分,透過這種方式 我們能夠對這些景物有所思考 而我認為,攝影的確是個很棒的媒介 它能讓我們投入思考
And after 17 years of photographing large industrial landscapes, it occurred to me that oil is underpinning the scale and speed. Because that is what has changed, is the speed at which we're taking all our resources. And so then I went out to develop a whole series on the landscape of oil. And what I want to do is to kind of map an arc that there is extraction, where we're taking it from the ground, refinement. And that's one chapter.
在拍攝這些大型工業景觀之後 我發現 石化工業支撐起了"規模"和"速度"這兩樣東西 長久以來一直在改變的 就是我們掠取自然資源的速度 所以,我決定拍攝一系列 石化工業設施的照片 我想表達的有以下幾點 第一個部分為人類在何處開採 和提煉這些石油.
The other chapter that I wanted to look at was how we use it -- our cities, our cars, our motorcultures, where people gather around the vehicle as a celebration. And then the third one is this idea of the end of oil, this entropic end, where all of our parts of cars, our tires, oil filters, helicopters, planes -- where are the landscapes where all of that stuff ends up?
另一個部份我想要看的是 石油如何被利用. 在城市中, 在汽車上 和大家開車聚在一起的汽車文化中 這也成了一種聚會的方式 第三個部分則是石油的終點 走到了終點時 所有的車子,輪胎 石油過濾器 直升機,飛機等等... 最後都去哪了呢?
And to me, again, photography was a way in which I could explore and research the world, and find those places. And another idea that I had as well, that was brought forward by an ecologist -- he basically did a calculation where he took one liter of gas and said, well, how much carbon it would take, and how much organic material? It was 23 metric tons for one liter. So whenever I fill up my gas, I think of that liter, and how much carbon.
對我來說 攝影就是我探索和發現這個世界的方式 並且讓我能找到這些地方 我還有另一個想法 這歸因於一位生態學家的啟發 他做了一個計算 他拿了一公升的汽油,說 為了一公升的汽油,要消耗多少炭和有機物質呢? 要23公噸 所以當我每次加油時 我便會想起這個實驗
And I know that oil comes from the ocean and phytoplankton, but he did the calculations for our Earth and what it had to do to produce that amount of energy. From the photosynthetic growth, it would take 500 years of that growth to produce what we use, the 30 billion barrels we use per year.
我知道石油是藉由海洋和浮游生物生成的 他還計算了 要如何製造出這麼多的石油 從光合作用開始 大概需要500年的時間 來製造我們每年使用的300億桶汽油
And that also brought me to the fact that this poses such a risk to our society. Looking at 30 billion per year, we look at our two largest suppliers, Saudi Arabia and now Canada, with its dirty oil. And together they only form about 15 years of supply. The whole world, at 1.2 trillion estimated reserves, only gives us about 45 years. So, it's not a question of if, but a question of when peak oil will come upon us.
這也讓我想到說 這對整個社會來說其實是一種風險 每年300億桶汽油 由兩個最大的供應國提供 沙烏地阿拉伯,和加拿大 但他的油品質不太好 他們也許還能提供15年的原油 而全世界還有1.2兆桶的存量 大概還能撐個45年 所以,現在的問題不是石油會不會用完,而是何時會用完 我們將達到石油頂峰
So, to me, using photography -- and I feel that all of us need to now begin to really take the task of using our talents, our ways of thinking, to begin to deal with what I think is probably one of the most challenging issues of our time, how to deal with our energy crisis.
所以,我透過攝影 而我認為所有人都應該開始 運用自己的才能 以及思維 來解決上述可能出現的問題 也是當代最具挑戰性的問題 那就是能源危機
And I would like to say that, on the other side of it, 30, 40 years from now, the children that I have, I can look at them and say, "We did everything we possibly, humanly could do, to begin to mitigate this, what I feel is one of the most important and critical moments in our time. Thank you. (Applause)
在另一方面 在三、四十年之後 我能看著我的孩子並向他們說 我們已經盡了全力 來緩和能源危機 我認為,這是當代最重要,最關鍵的時刻了 謝謝 掌聲!