Nina Berman Presents "Fractured:The Shale Play" at Photoville 2013

Via Photoville

PHOTOVILLE will return Brooklyn Bridge Park from September 19–29 on the Uplands of Pier 5
 
The rush to drill down and explode the ground in pursuit of energy is transforming the natural landscape in rural America. Photographing this kind of industrial activity presents a paradox. The visual spectacle is alluring, yet the effects are toxic and polluting. This form of natural gas drilling, also called fracking, is steeped in controversy and unknowns. In these images, all made in rural Pennsylvania, I sought to capture the strange beckoning and fear where the landscapes shifts from natural to industrial, where what appears as rays of sunshine are actually methane flares; where pitch dark dirt roads, end in a burst of artificial light. In this unsettling environment, I include portraits of individuals who are trapped amid this altered, contaminated landscape.

Related Programming:

Artist Talk: Nina Berman, Fracking the Marcellus Shale

2:50 – 3:50pm | Saturday 9/28

Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, author and educator, whose photographs and videos have been exhibited at more than 90 venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Portland Art Museum, Dublin Contemporary and the Museum for Modern Art, (MMK) Frankfurt. She’s received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, (NYFA), the Open Society Foundation, World Press Photo and Hasselblad. She is the author of two monographs: Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, and Homeland, which examine the aftermath of war and the militarization of American life. She lives in New York City, is an associate professor at Columbia University and is a member of the Amsterdam based NOOR photo collective.

Marcellus Shale Documentary Project Artist Panel: Today, August 29

 

Nina Berman: Apple Tree illuminated by gas flaring, Susquehanna County, 2011

 
Via Ithaca College Handwerker Gallery

Marcellus Shale Documentary Project
Curated by Laura Domencic
August 26–September 27, 2013

Work by Noah Addis, Nina Berman, Brian Cohen,
Scott Goldsmith, Lynn Johnson, Martha Rial

Artist Panel: August 29, 4.00 p.m.
Opening Reception: August 29, 5.00–7.00 p.m.

The six photographers of the Marcellus Shale Documentary Project have taken on the responsibility of telling, in the best traditions of social and environmental documentary, the complex story of Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania. For the best part of a year, they have traveled across the Commonwealth, meeting people and listening to and recording their stories.

The Marcellus Shale Documentary Project tells stories, through photographic images, of how the lives of Pennsylvanians are affected by the Marcellus Shale Gas Industry. By creating a visual document of the environmental, social and economic impact of drilling, the work aims to engage communities in the current Marcellus debate while providing important historical images for the future.

In capturing images of the people and places most affected by gas drilling, photographers Noah Addis, Nina Berman, Brian Cohen, Scott Goldsmith, Lynn Johnson, and Martha Rial examine both the positive and negative results of drilling and how the environment and the communities that live with the resources are being shaped. Organized by photographer Brian Cohen, and Laura Domencic, Director of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the project will compile the work into a traveling exhibition opening October 2012 at Pittsburgh Filmmakers with accompanying lectures, book and online archive.

The Marcellus Shale Documentary Project is generously supported by The Sprout Fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, and by the individual gifts of Josh Whetzel, Nancy Bernstein and Cathy Raphael.

If you are interested in joining these supporters by donating to this important body of work, please contact Brian Cohen at info@the-msdp.us






http://www.the-msdp.us/