Carbon Empire works in the space between art and documentary. It combines a short series of staged pictures of a man in the street made in 1997 with views of closed petrol stations recorded between 2003 and 2017, juxtaposed with a single frame made by chance in 2002.

The closed stations reflect the effects of petroleum law changes across New Zealand. In 1988 the sector was deregulated, with the large international wholesalers able to control pricing at both refinery and pump; the small independent retailers, often family businesses, found it increasingly difficult to survive in an environment too easily manipulated by economies of scale and the politics of supply, and their inability to compete led to closure.