Manufactured Landscape

As a photographer I found this video very interesting. It's intimidating how many people are involved in some of his shots. I prefer to document what's going on and mostly stay out of the way. It was somewhat of a letdown to see that some of his shots were staged, such as the guy guiding the donkey. Even though, that scene probably plays out a hundred times each day, it was sad to see that he staged it and what we saw as a scene of toil was somewhat staged and the guy was paid to play himself.  Can't exactly explain why it bugs me, but it just seems a little fabricated...

Concerning the magnitude of many of the projects, it was utterly mind blowing the scale of the dam and the number of people it was displacing. Added to that, the fact that they had to destroy their own towns with hammers and other human powered means. Similar to the way the Indonesians disassembled the gigantic cargo ships. They were driven as far up the beach as possible during high tide and then left to be gutted by men and boys with little or no safety equipment. Which is absolutely insane! OSHA would have a hay day!

From the point of design, it makes me question it all. Is all of the scarred landscape worth whatever raw material or structure is effecting the landscape? Is there a better way to do something to leave less of a footprint?

They are important questions that seem to come up time and again in discussions about responsible design.