Having focused his lens on illegal logging practices in Madagascar and on the thirty-two coal-fired power stations in his native England for past investigative photo essays, reportage photographer Toby Smith now turns to the promising renewable energy sources of the future. For his first exhibition in the planned series that he is calling The Renewables Project, he has captured snapshots of a power generation scheme that is actually far from new and has in fact been supplying electricity for decades essentially free of carbon emissions.
     Over the course of three months last winter in the Scottish Highlands, Smith exhaustively studied the region’s hydroelectric dams through his camera. With simple composition and framing, and by using long exposures, he has produced images that affectingly convey the vastness of the engineering systems at work and of the surrounding environment. The project is consistent with his regular approach of examining the nexus between ecology and human activity in a manner that brings to mind the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky’s reliably astonishing industrial landscapes. Before heading to China, where he will continue to explore alternative energy sources, Smith spoke to PLANET about the photos that he hopes will inspire an honest debate.