Exhibitions

The Price of Gold

From 01 Dec 2015 to 29 Feb 2016

1 Dec- 29 Feb. A series of photographic portraits of sick gold miners.

Photographs by Thom Pierce of 56 sick miners and miners' widows. The exhibition is in the dark to give the impression of being underground, with only the light of the miners' helmets to view the images.

The exhibition is in collaboration with the Treatment Action Campaign to help 69 miners suffering from silicosis who have turned to the courts in a class-action suit on behalf of all miners against 32 companies.

Thousands of South African miners have been diagnosed with the preventable but incurable lung disease silicosis, which comes from exposure to silica dust in South African's gold mines.

Pierce documents the cases of sick miners and their families through the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces via the mountains of Lesotho up to Johannesburg.