Alex MacLean

Portfolio: Tar Sands

  • Oil Sands, Suncor Mine, Alberta, Canada 2014(Waste water layden with oil is returned to surface mine settlement pond where it will be parcially recyled)
  • Stages of Forest Clearing, Suncor Steepbank Mine, Alberta, Canada 2014 (Land in various stages of clearing, from fully forested, to dewatering of the natural, moisture-rich soil, to active mining on the horizon)Landscape Architecture Magazine (11/2014): In Alberta, muskeg is scraped from the surface to reach the tar sands.Supply Demand Book: The boreal forest is cleared, exposing the peat-dense soil called “muskeg”. Muskeg is a very moist soil that requires a “dewatering” process before mining. The soil is piled in to rows and left to dry for up to two years.University Set: The boreal forest is cleared, exposing the peat-dense soil called “muskeg” at Suncor's Steepbank mine. Muskeg is a very moist soil that requires a “dewatering” process before mining.
  • Oil Laden Delta, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Fragmented Forest, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Finite WorldSeptember 10 - October 8, 2016Alex MacLean takes both hands off the controls of his two-seater Cessna 182, grabs his camera, leans out the open window of his cockpit, and starts shooting. The plane, meanwhile, starts wiggling. MacLean is an artist and also a cartographer. He's exhibited in museums internationally, including a solo turn at the Menil Collection in Houston. Two years ago he won the Prix de Rome, a venerable award in landscape architecture. Through these photographs, he shows the organizations and urban developments that define the different lifestyles and consumption.Finite World shows MacLean’s images of oil production centers across the United States and Canada that capture the strange beauty in the shape and form of environmental destruction, the patterns of tank farms and unnatural edges, colors and designs of cleared acres of factories, pipes, pumps and drainage basins-the precise structures of their profit making.
  • Fans of Oil, Syncrude, Mildred Lake, Alberta, Canada 2014(Eddies of surface oil radiate out from openings in a hidden spill pipe paralleling the edge of a settlement pond)
  • Terraces of Open Pit Tar Sands Mine, Syncrude, Mildred Lake, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Steam and Smoke Rise from Upgrading Facility at Syncrude Mildred Lake Mine, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Wastewater Surface Oil on a Tailing Pond, Imperial Oil Kearl Mine, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Natural Pond, Alberta, Canada 2014(Early morning mist lifting over the Boreal forest at sun rise)
  • Discharge Pipes, Suncor Mine, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Rising steam and Smoke at the Syncrude Mildred Lake upgrade refinery, Mildred Lake, Canada 2014
  • Oil Swirls on Tailing Pond, Alberta, Canada 2014(After mining, tar sands are mixed with hot water to separate the bitumen, or oil, from the sand. This slurry passes through multiple processes of separation before the wastewater is pumped out in to tailling ponds on the mining site. Traces of oil remain in this water and rise to the top of the ponds while sand settles to the bottom)
  • Forest Buffer Along River Bed, Alberta, Canada 2014(Forest surrounds a river channel leading to a tar sands upgrading facility on the horizon)
  • Imperial Oil Kearl Mine, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Muskeg, A Peat-Like, Moisture-Rich Soil, Must be Dewatered Before Open Pit Mining Can Begin, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Alberta, Canada 2014(Steam rises off hot waste from upgrading facilities as it discharges in to tailing ponds at Syncrude Mildred Lake)
  • Open Pit Mines, Alberta, Canada 2014(Trucks at tar sands mines carry loads of up 400 tons and cost approximately $5-6 million each. Their tires, seen lining the traffic circle at Syncrude Mildred Lake, have a diameter of 13 feet, weigh more than 15 tons, have a lifespan of 12 to 15 months, and cost about $50,000 each)
  • Syncrude Mildred Lake Mining Facility, Alberta, Canada 2014(Steam and smoke rise from the upgrading facility with massive deposits of yellow sulfur byproduct in front)
  • Tar sands mines and facilities in Alberta are among the largest industrial activities on Earth. The Syncrude Mildred Lake mine, on the banks of the Athabasca River (upper left), measures more than ten miles across.
  • Crude oils are designated {quote}sweet{quote} or {quote}sour,{quote} depending on how much of the impurity sulfur, which must be removed, they contain. Tar sands oil, a sour crude, is highly enriched in sulfur, requiring a large amount of energy to refine. At Syncrude Mildred Lake, sulfur is removed from the crude oil and stored in the massive pyramids seen here. These two plots cover together occupy more than 1.8 million square feet of land.
  • The slowing velocity of a wastewater stream forms a deta at the edge of a settllemant pond where oil collects on the surface .
  • A film of oil creates radiating bands and eddies on the surface of Suncor’s South Tailing Pond.
  • Overview of tailing pond at Suncor mining site
  • Suncor upgrading facility on the banks of the Athabasca River
  • Clearing of Forest For Exploratory Drilling, Alberta, Canada 2014
  • Suncor Oil Sands Project upgrading facility on the banks of the Asthabasca River
  • Gas flares at the Suncor Oil Sands Mining Site.
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