One River, Two Banks
As toxic as the idea of the nature we existed within, was the reality of that nature itself. The real, physical toxins beneath our feet seeping under the foundation of our homes. The 25 wards that make up most of the south and west sides of chicago have both of lowest median income and life expectancy. They manage this while also having the highest levels of environmental pollution and number of dump sites for industrial waste. These wards are shown above over that waste. Below are two images that juxtapose two sides of the same insurial site, a shot of big marsh partially rehabilitated across the from the remains of an abandoned factory, buried beneath that factory is a capped toxic dump site.
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Wetlands
This urban industrial environment was created in the process of gathering materials to pave the roads of Chicago. Its creation erased the natural marshlands that were there prior, replacing them with streams of dirt roads from truck tracks. I returned the truck trails to rivers of the dust left behind by their tires by warping them in post, andthen gathered open source map data of the city’s road maps to juxtapose those roads with a map of the city’s waterways they interrupt.
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River Rogue
The community of River Rogue is the most polluted zip code in Michigan (48217) , sitting adjacent to one of the most polluted rivers in the country. One bank of this river is lined with factories and railyards, the other bank is home to a residential area; on a map sandwiched between a collage of industrial shapes and railroad lines.
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Publication
Some of the orignal/unedited images were featured in the publication 'Minding Nature' accompanying a research project I was apart of. Copies of publication were given out at an exhibition of some of the above visual pieces. Posters of the images were sold at the opening night, profits from those prints go to the South East Enviormental Taskforce.
Exhibition
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I showcased an interactive version of this project at Chicago's Hairpin Art Center to which I invited people that live in some of the areas ive been researching to attend the show and foster informational discussions.
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Process
For the first section I gathered statistical & Census data, and vectors from open source map of the chicago land area and outlined the wards repeatedly affected by that data. For the second stage I gathered maps of the chicago's waterways and vector data of the roads that were paved with materials from an aggregate mine that replaced natural wetlands. I went through a similar process with the River Rogue piece simplified maps of industrial and residential areas to just shapes in illustrator and compsited over my drone photography in photoshop.
