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Painter working on chain link fence, Philadelphia
View north from Swanson and Catherine Streets, Philadelphia
Littered embankment near Vine Street exit of I-95. Center city office buildings in background, Philadelphia
Gulf and Arco plants. Schuykill Expressway and Penrose Avenue, Philadelphia
Gulf and Arco plants. Schuykill Expressway and Penrose Bridge across the Schuykill Priver, Folcroft, Pennsylvania
Gulf Refinery -- from the Penrose Bridge, Eastwick, Philadelphia
Gulf and Arco installations, Camden, New Jersey
Gulf and Arco refineries, Philadelphia
Gulf and Arco plants, Philadelphia
City incinerator on the Delaware River, Camden, New Jersey
US Steel Fairless Works on the Delaware River, Camden, New Jersey
US Steel Fairless Works on the Delaware River, Camden, New Jersey
US Steel Fairless Works on the Delaware River, Camden, New Jersey
US Steel Fairless Works on the Delaware River, Camden, New Jersey
The polluted Schuykill River and center city in background, Philadelphia
North Philadelphia junkyard stacked with cars for scrap metal
Stacked cars in city junkyard will be used for scrap, North Philadelphia
Stacked cars in city junkyard will be used for scrap, North Philadelphia
Row houses stretching out from center city, Philadelphia
Row houses, Philadelphia
Row houses, Philadelphia
Row houses, Philadelphia
Row houses, Philadelphia
Row houses and skyscrapers in center city area, Philadelphia
Pennsylvania, Northwest Philadelphia
Center city, Philadelphia, at sunset
Philadelphia suburb and cemetery
Painter working on chain link fence, Philadelphia
Photos by Dick Swanson, August 1973 for the Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA Project (U.S. National Archives)
I think this EPA endeavour to reveal the perishing republic as it then was represents a beautiful last apparition of the spirit of the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration photographic projects of the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteDick Swanson's chain-link fence painter, the brave chemically- toxified-worker descendant of John Vachon's Sun-Ray Man.
The John Vachon echo is uncanny. A strange bravery but bravery nonetheless. A human figure in the midst of those uniform habitations, cars and the poison (and the wages) of heavy industry.
ReplyDelete"A human figure in the midst of those uniform habitations, cars and the poison (and the wages) of heavy industry."
ReplyDeleteThe shrinking of the human figure from an effective agent in the world to a dwindled object of use by something larger, something mysterious, something never quite understood by any but the (very few, usually distant) users who framed this whole system of arrangements for their own convenience... is that inexorable process of diminution not known as history?