Tag: pollution

DOCUMERICA: Images of America in Crisis in the 1970s

DOCUMERICA: Images of America in Crisis in the 1970s

Posted on by Kbaumlier

At the end of the 1960’s, the rapid development of industry and the unchecked land development began to take a noticeable toll on the environment. Air, noise, and water pollution seemed to be on the rise, and people began to call for action.

In November 1971, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a massive photo documentary project to record these changes.  Called DOCUMERICA, more than 100 photographers were hired to document specific environmental issues, to capture images of everyday life, and to show that moment in history. By 1974, more than 80,000 photographs had been produced.  The images framed environmental problems such as noise, water and air pollution, but also health problems and social decay.
The project also collected images of American making changes and creating positive change in their surroundings.

The project was the United States first serious examination of the decay of the natural environment   Gifford Hampshire was the EPA Project director for DOCUMERICA and described the inspiration of the project as, “It was an exciting time. The public was expecting results.”  Hampshire wrote in his memoir that the EPA had worked to close down the big offenders of industrial pollution, but that it became clear that ordinary people were responsible for many pollution issues.

The project was geographic in nature, with photographers working in one area of the U.S. usually where they lived and worked as professional photographers.  Exhibits of the images were shown at EPA facilities and other small venues until the early 1980s.

The images are really eye-opening today.  Images of cities with smog, subways with graffiti, a town with 4 nuclear reactors in the background – paint a picture of the environment as it was in the 1970s. Looking at them today also shows that we have made some progress in terms of protecting the environment, and in dealing with pollution.

The images can be seen on the Documerica Catalogue website, and there is also a great selection of 46 images on the Atlantic’s website.

Image Source:
DOCUMERICA Project

 

Links:

DOCUMERICA  Images of Crisis and Cure in the 1970s

Archival Research Catalogue – Documerica

46 selected pictures on The Atlantic DOCUMERICA: Images of America in Crisis in the 1970s

 

Reverse Graffiti Cleaning up the Street: Street Artist Moose

Reverse Graffiti Cleaning up the Street: Street Artist Moose

Posted on by Kbaumlier

A shoe brush, water, old socks, cleaning fluid, and elbow grease are the tools of a British street artist known as Moose, who creates graffiti by cleaning dirt from sidewalks and tunnels. Some authorities call it vandalism, but Moose, whose real name is Paul Curtis says that what he is doing is cleaning up the street, and that he is leaving no real marks and is cleaning up the dirt of urban life.

Moose says that he got the idea watching people write their names on dirty tunnel walls using their fingers in his hometown of Leeds, in the U.K.  This form of street art is called “reverse graffiti,” and other artists including Brazilian artist Alexandre Orion and street artist Banksy have also used this technique.

Moose usually does work on tunnels, signs, and retaining walls.  One of his best known pieces  was in the Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco.  At the time he was working for a record label, and they wanted to promote a new album. Lacking the funds for advertising, they scrubbed their message into the walls of tunnels around his hometown of Leeds, England.

A few years ago, he worked with a group of Greenpeace eco-warriors. They piled into a zodiac raft, armed with pressure washers, and buzzed across the Thames River to a blackened retaining wall near the House of Parliament. When they’d finished their work, the wall was emblazoned with the message: “DON’T CHANGE THE CLIMATE. CHANGE THE POLITICS.”

“The environmental message [in my art] is unavoidable, “Moose says. “I’m writing in grime….If I can intrigue people to look closer, and then shock them with the contrast between where the wall was cleaned and where it was dirty … It’s just a quirky little way of getting the point out to people.”

 

Links:

Video of his work

Moose’s websit

NPR Morning Edition – Moose and his work