tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post3121875461062659525..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: America the Beautiful: Crossing the Painted RoadUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-55852855561405660702012-12-28T18:36:32.378-08:002012-12-28T18:36:32.378-08:00"...the young fox snarling at encroaching ‘pr..."...the young fox snarling at encroaching ‘progress’. Columbus and that crowd stumbled upon what to them was a whole continent of ‘unimproved property’ just waiting to be ‘developed’. Here are the results. This is structural violence, as relentless as it is inescapable."<br /><br />Yes, and this remarkable EPA series involving some seventy top notch photographers from the 1970s documents the nation teetering on the brink of the wholesale destruction -- "development"-- of that continent.<br /><br />On the environmental front it's been downhill ever since, mostly well out of sight of government-funded public-interest lenses and hard, careful trained eyes looking through them to assess the damage -- both in progress, and imminent, as in the case of the fox and caribou on the oil pipeline route.<br /><br />The NARA archive holds a legacy of over 15,000 of the original 35mm color slides and black and white negatives and prints from this environmental field survey. Nothing like it had happened in the 35 years since the FSA project (on which it was modeled, with a comparable liberty for the photographers to define the range and scope of the mission as they worked). And nothing like it would ever happen again. <br /><br />These days the funding does not go to tough, reality-check documentary projects. But a lot of pictures could be taken with the money it costs to build one military drone.<br /><br />The courage to stare the wreckage in the eye, now that would be another matter, pricetag issues notwithstanding.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-9392609781052639142012-12-27T11:37:43.468-08:002012-12-27T11:37:43.468-08:00Goodbye forever Yellow brick road.Goodbye forever <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_brick_road" rel="nofollow">Yellow brick road</a>.vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-61484032724896668292012-12-27T08:31:57.714-08:002012-12-27T08:31:57.714-08:00These are deeply disturbing images of a progressiv...These are deeply disturbing images of a progressive disease. The picture that gets me the most— even more than those of the poor homo saps, we human denizens of a vanishing world—is that of the young fox snarling at encroaching ‘progress’. Columbus and that crowd stumbled upon what to them was a whole continent of ‘unimproved property’ just waiting to be ‘developed’. Here are the results. This is structural violence, as relentless as it is inescapable. Welcome to Grind City.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-35081807850731659962012-12-27T08:25:49.216-08:002012-12-27T08:25:49.216-08:00Tom,
"Subjects of environmental concern"...Tom,<br /><br />"Subjects of environmental concern" to put it mildly -- and yes, as Wooden Boy notes, to go from the cars, e.g., that old VW in Jamaica Bay, to caribou, fox & squirrel is something of a shock.<br /><br /><br />12.27<br /><br />light coming into sky above still black<br />ridge, golden-crowned sparrow’s oh dear<br />in foreground, wave sounding in channel<br /><br /> see repetition of materials,<br /> note pen and graphite<br /><br /> which is in itself, a measure<br /> open to itself, as is<br /><br />grey of rain cloud above green of ridge,<br />shadowed white gulls on tip of sandspit<br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80294608275108075342012-12-27T07:13:55.032-08:002012-12-27T07:13:55.032-08:00Wonderful post, TC. As always, you lay it out with...Wonderful post, TC. As always, you lay it out with no recourse to sentiment or false hope. Moving from the cars to the Caribou is a shock.<br /><br />Thanks for the link, Terry. I hadn't heard of Gene Davis.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-20207473704899777662012-12-27T05:53:52.475-08:002012-12-27T05:53:52.475-08:00Many thanks, tpw.
Here's Terry's link mad...Many thanks, tpw.<br /><br />Here's Terry's link made clickable:<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.magicalurbanism.com/archives/3184" rel="nofollow">Gene Davis Paints a Street</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8417170161819187002012-12-27T05:48:37.275-08:002012-12-27T05:48:37.275-08:00Dear Tom: That last image, which I recognized imme...Dear Tom: That last image, which I recognized immediately, comes from the Washington stripe painter Gene Davis. The first book I ever edited at the Smithsonian was an exhibition-related title on his once-famous paintings. See http://www.magicalurbanism.com/archives/3184 tpwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05909239000589253931noreply@blogger.com