Gemfields is the world’s largest coloured gemstone producer and is the leading champion of ethics, sustainability and transparency within the gem extraction industry.
In 2015, they commissioned me to capture the essence of the company’s operations in Zambia, its main emerald extraction site and also its Amethyst one.
I had two weeks in which to distill the company’s social purpose and actual supply processes. In a very short timeframe I covered a huge amount: the beauty of the gems themselves in situ—big as walnuts, green as jungle—cradled in rock, and the stunning physical environments in which they lay; the hard graft of those whose job it was to prise them out, their colleagues’ skill and diligence in sorting and cleaning them, and, crucially, the huge ethical legacy the gems’ extraction was creating: from decent schools, to free, high-quality healthcare and comfortable housing.
This was a rare positive story, in the gem trade, and one that was made all the more poignant for me to shoot since it meant returning to an African country I had lived in as a child.
It was pleasure to work for a company that sets as much store on its environmental, social and safety legacy as it does on its profitability.
