Lu Guang: photographer of pollution in China

a migrant worker washing in a polluted pond in the Chinese city of Guiyu which has been called the electronic waste capital of the world
photographs by Lu Guang from Chinahush.com

I have posted before about the chilling and haunting photographs of industrial pollution in China taken by photographer Lu Guang who was awarded the 2009 Eugene Smith grant in humanistic photography for his work. There is an interview with Lu Guang here where he talks about the side of China that Westerners don't see. Lu points out that the people whose villages have been destroyed by pollution have not benefited at all from the so called "miracle of the Chinese economy".

In the interview Lu explains the cause of the environmental destruction he has photographed:

"The root cause of pollution is businesses want to get more profits, business owners want to get more profits, put aside their own moral and destroy environment. They gained more profits, and that's it"

Here is a link to a New York Review of Books article on Lu Guang's photos by China specialist Orville Schell.