ON THE WATERFRONT
Utilising a combination of images created using publicly available Google Earth satellite imagery and photographs captured by the artist, ON THE WATERFRONT examines some of the world's largest port operations in exquisite detail as an insight into globalisation. The efforts of modern ports to improve efficiency, increase capacity and drop costs have resulted in impressive displays of engineering and logistics which can only truly be appreciated when viewed from above. The resulting images reveal mesmerising patterns and colours, and incredible scale, clearly revealing the mechanics behind this often overlooked industry which is vital to our modern consumer lifestyle.
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Bremerhaven, Germany.
Increasing global demand has seen the emergence of ever growing 'mega ports', handling tens of millions of containers a year.
Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, V.
A single shipping container can hold up to 30 tonnes of cargo.
Consumer Items I.
90% of the items we consume are shipped across the seas in containers.
Port of Shanghai, China.
Of the world’s 4,500 ports, the port of Shanghai was the busiest container port in the world, handling about 42 million containers of cargo in 2018.
Shenzhen Port, China.
One large container ship can move around 200,000 containers in a year with cargo worth over $4.5B. There are estimated to be more than 60,000 container ships in operation worldwide, together transporting more than 500 million containers a year.
Consumer Items II.
Only 2% of containers are inspected.
Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, IV.
The quantity of goods carried by containers has risen from around 102 million metric tons in 1980
to about 1.83 billion metric tons in 2017.
Port Headland, Western Australia.
Australia is responsible for more than 50% of the world’s iron exports.
Cape Lambert, Western Australia.
The majority of Australian iron is shipped to China.
Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, China.
The port of Ningbo-Zhoushan moved more than 1 billion tonnes of cargo in 2017, most of which was dry bulk such as iron and coal.
Shanghai, China, II.
Port of Tianjin, China
Fuel Pumps IV.
Europe imported more than 15 million barrels of oil a day in 2018, an all time high at the time.
Oil Storage Facility, Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Port of Los Angeles, USA, I-IX.
The United States of America has exported close to 2 million vehicles per year for the last 5 consecutive years, worth around 55 billion dollars a year. Depicted above is the same car park at The Port of Los Angeles, where cars are loaded for export, captured intermittently over a period of 10 years.