Abstract
This photography-based work-in-progress examines the 12-square miles of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, an Army Corps-controlled Mississippi River outlet located between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I believe this landscape and its surroundings are emblematic of the ways we intersect with the natural world as our climate continues to change. With an interest in the spillway’s history as a sugar plantation, current use as a site for recreation, and proximity to the petrochemical industry, my hope is that this project will demonstrate how capitalism, white supremacy, and human desire shape the landscape we inhabit. I seek to generate a dialogue which examines our experience of the climate crisis through our vulnerability and culpability. The Bonnet Carré Spillway’s 7000-foot flood control structure is itself an engineering marvel, and first drew me to the site. On either end, parallel seven-mile levees connect the river to Lake Pontchartrain, creating a contained basin for flooding. Working within this local landscape, I connect Louisiana and the Gulf South to global discourse regarding sites of extraction–using the visual to address the violence and erasure endemic to such spaces. Made from an expressive and hopefully-poetic (rather than documentary) position, I intend for the photographs to operate with openness instead of generating a prescriptive or authoritative narrative. Through photographs, video and text, the project draws together the nuanced forces at work at this site–some of which are emblematic of the Anthropogenic landscape–while also bringing visibility to the nuance of this particularly historic, complicated, captivating place.
Presenters
Lily BrooksAssistant Professor of Photography, Edward Schlieder Endowed Professor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies (2022-2025), Visual Art + Design, Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Technical, Political, and Social Responses
KEYWORDS
Climate change, Flood control, Photography, Art, Extraction, Engineering, Louisiana
