MINES

In 2004, the last tons of coal were extracted from the Lorraine mine of La Houve, exactly ten years after the closure of the last slate mine at Angers. The grand history of industrial exploitation of mineral resources in France came to an end at the start of the 21st century. The traces of that industry are slowly fading away from both landscape and memory. In the former mineral basins, the mining towns and wastelands mark out the one-time territory. Here and there a metal pithead outstretches its rusted frame. The slag heaps show up as in 'negatives' the billions of cubic metres wrestled out of the Earth by generations of miners. But the most striking evidence bearing witness to that industrial epic, is also the most secret: the place of work itself, a world into which men dug their way, tens or hundreds of metres deep down below the landscape of France. Initially technical photographs, these shots come from a stock continually updated over the past twenty years by visits to the old mines. The pictures aim at documenting mining techniques, but the Mine itself turns out to be a universe with great visual power.