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The Money Islands
Sand extraction in the Maldives shows how this alluring natural resource leads to both profit and peril.
Sand miners freediving to collect sand in Meemu Atoll, near the island of Mulah. A dozen people can fill approximately two hundred bags—or one ton of sand—per day.
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Issue: Spring 2024 / Volume 100/1
Published: June 6, 2024
Mathias Depardon’s photographs have been exhibited at such institutions as the BNF, Le Musée Carnavalet, and the Musée des Archives Nationale in Paris. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Le Monde, and the Sunday Times Magazine, among others.
Emmanuel Iduma is the author of A Stranger’s Pose (Cassava Republic, 2018) and I Am Still With You (Harper Collins, 2023). His honors include the Windham-Campbell Prize in Nonfiction, C/O Berlin Talent Award in Theory, and the Irving Sandler Award for New Voices in Art Criticism by AICA-USA.