Mobile phones then, Fracking now

As the ridiculous hysterical protests against fracking in the UK intensify toward an inconceivable hyperbole, I found this article from The Telegraph,  from 15 years ago:

It’s worth noting that the same scaremongering Luddites who were pulling down phone masts in 2003, are likely contentedly using their cellphones to arrange anti-fracking protests in 2018.

Who knows what they’ll be ill-advisedly protesting against in 2031…?

Dillon Marsh’s Invasive Species

“In 1996 a palm tree appeared almost overnight in a suburb of Cape Town. This was supposedly the world’s first ever disguised cell phone tower. Since then these trees have spread across the city, South Africa and the rest of the world. Invasive Species explores the relationship between the environment and the disguised towers of Cape Town and its surrounds.”

So says photographer Dillon Marsh.

Here’s the palm tree in question:

Invasive Species, Brackenfell South (2009)

And yeah, that’s really not fooling anyone, is it?

And yet many of our cellphone masts are disguised in an equally unsubtle way to “blend in” with their surroundings, just like this one doesn’t.
I’m not saying that cellphone masts are particularly pretty or anything, I’m just suggesting that their appearance is not necessarily improved by this sort of attempted concealment.

There are more examples of how camouflaging these structures doesn’t really work on the link above.

You may also enjoy Marsh’s Giants Among Men set, featuring – amongst other things – the giant strawberry near Spier and the infamous Spotty Dog from down the road in Retreat.