Aerial Photos Document the Expansive Greenhouses Covering Spain’s Almería Peninsula


All pictures © Tom Hegen, shared with permission
A follow-up to his sequence targeted on the glow of LED-lit greenhouses, Tom Hegen’s new assortment friends down on the panorama of Spain’s Almería peninsula. The German photographer is broadly occupied with our affect on the earth and gears his follow towards the aerial, providing views that illuminate the immense scale of human exercise.
In The Greenhouse Series II, Hegen captures the summary topographies of the world’s largest agricultural manufacturing heart of its sort, which stretches throughout 360-square kilometers of rugged, mountainous terrain within the southern a part of the nation. The sun-trapping constructions home vegetation like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and watermelons that present contemporary produce to a lot of Europe year-round.
Whereas 30 occasions extra productive than typical farmland within the area, the amenities additionally operate at a price to the native ecosystems. “Groundwater is being polluted with fertilisers and pesticides. Some 30,000 tons of plastic waste are created every year,” Hegen tells Colossal, noting that the greenhouses are made nearly totally of plastic foil, which is shredded and discarded close by as soon as it’s now not helpful. “From there, wind and erosion transport it to the (Mediterranean Sea).”
Hegen will talk about utilizing aerial pictures to foster connections with the bigger world throughout a TedX occasion this Might, and you’ll sustain together with his newest initiatives on Instagram and Behance.
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