As anyone who’s ever passed by a mining operation knows, strip-mining, rock quarries, and tailing ponds are usually fairly hideous blights on the natural landscape. The joy of seeing huge machines scuttling around pushing rocks- for me, anyways- melted away as I got older and I realized just how brutally we rip up the planet in our quest for resources. It’s a necessary evil, and whether or not it could be approached in a less destructive fashion is for someone much smarter than I to figure out. Photographer Tito Mouraz brought all of my youthful interest back to rock quarries in one fell swoop by creating incredible photos that transform a ravaged landscape into beautiful photos that will bend your mind and stir your inner child.
Awesome Photos That Makes Rock Quarries Look Like Tiny, Brilliantly Colored Art
For me, there were tons of reasons why seeing open rock quarries as a child got me so excited… since you could never get close, the glimpses that I caught of the operations were always at such a great distance that scale of the gargantuan machines seemed just the perfect size for little hands. I was (and remain) a messy, outdoorsy child, and imagining stomping around in the perfect little ponds, and grabbing the tiny machines (which in retrospect, are all actually of a size that one alone could make short work of my home) to drive off the sheer cliffs was the stuff of perfect daydreams.
The angular walls made rock quarries appear as though they were built out of blocks, with the ant like people and little ladders all set up and ready for a day of imaginary smashing and pushing and driving and exploding. With his photos, Mouraz has managed to bring all of those feelings back, while capturing the strange, colorful beauty of barren stone. For two years, Mouraz toured around Portugal, ranging high above and deep below the Earth to find the perfect angles to bring life back to rock quarries tucked away across the landscape, and he’s succeeded spectacularly. These shots make me want to hop a flight so I can go play with the dump trucks in all these amazing looking locales. There’s obviously an awful lot more than just giant, blasted holes in the mountains in Portugal, but this alone piques my curiosity enough that I’d want to head there.
Tito Mouraz has a website full of his work, which often revolves around empty landscapes around the country- an interesting contrast to the photos of bright, lively beaches and buzzing nightlife and culture that normally characterize Portugal. You can view his portfolio here.
