In 1886, gold mining was introduced to South Africa. The city of Johannesburg, at that time a small, desolate farming community, was transformed into an international mining mecca, and eventually became the epicenter of a gold rush in Africa. The fallout from this history is the subject of Jason Larkin’s upcoming book, “Tales from the City of Gold.”
The gold-mining industry collapsed in the mid-nineties, and Larkin, who lived in Johannesburg for three years, extensively photographed the city’s stretches of remaining mining dumps, which hold nearly six billion tons of waste, and around which two million of the country’s poorest citizens live. “Amazingly, every mine dump had its own life,” Larkin told me. “The communities that have developed in these spaces exist in such precarious situations: they have no running water or electricity, their residents breathe toxic dust and many of them are shaken out of bed as the defunct mine shafts below them weaken and shudder.”
Above is a selection of pictures from “Tales from the City of Gold.”
Photographs by Jason Larkin/Panos.
