San José mine, Chile.

As we sat glued to streamed updates on the rescue of 33 miners buried beneath the Atacama desert, I gave little thought to the media teams who fed us new information every few minutes. Nor did I think much of the place they must have found themselves in, after days of travelling to get there on time. All attention was on the small area at the centre of the mine, where the rescue shafts were being drilled…

Here, in a series of photos from James Lewis, a television news producer, is the other perspective. A long journey through an empty desert. Piles of rubble and heavy machinery. Towns of tents and caravans. Everyone at work, all the time. But always, always surrounded by a truly spectacular landscape.