Destruction creations: Powerful portraits of pollution

What an amazing world we live in– even when we’re destroying it.

Photographer Alex MacLean recently traveled to the Alberta oil sands to document the simultaneously beautiful and disturbing realities of Canada’s economic engine. The oil sands are being exploited in the production of commercial oil using mostly surface mining techniques.

From tailing ponds to strip mines, MacLean communicates a poignant aesthetic contrast that is well worth your time to view (and contemplate).

Here are a few of his stunning photos. For more, and information on his project, take a look here.