Features

Prospectors

Sarina Finkelstein

Published on 19/09/11

© Sar­ina Finkelstein

Over 150 years since the dis­cov­ery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, a new wave of pro­spect­ors has rushed to Cali­for­nia, des­per­ate to find gold to sus­tain them until the job mar­ket improves. This body of work doc­u­ments the re-emergence of gold pro­spect­ors in Cali­for­nia, explores recent legis­la­tion that threatens their way of life and exam­ines California’s iden­tity as “The Golden State”.

With the price at an all-time-high of $1400+/oz, the miners here — vic­tims of recent lay­offs, vet­er­ans, retir­ees and freel­an­cers — are depend­ent on the income they derive from prospecting.

SB 670, passed August 6, 2009. banned suc­tion dredging — the most pro­duct­ive method for pre­spect­ing gold — pending an already delayed review of it’s envir­o­mental impact. This law has decim­ated the gold pro­spect­ing com­munity, for­cing miners to seek altern­at­ive forms of eco­nomic relief, shut­ter­ing min­ing sup­ply stores and redu­cing peri­pheral sup­port to tour­ist busi­ness in The Golden State — drastic­ally impact­ing the state’s eco­nomy and inter­state commerce.

These pho­to­graphs exam­ine the irony of these pro­spect­ors, along­side images of gold souvenir shops, busi­ness and streets named of cel­eb­rate California’s gold min­ing history.

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