Photo Journal Monday: Nick Alvarez
Text and Image by Nick Alvarez
Photo Edited by Yanting Chen
Somewhere Nearby
As the well-known apologue cautions: If a frog is placed in water that is heated up gradually, it will not notice being boiled alive. This concept proves analogous to humans’ reactions to our increasingly polluted surroundings.
Currently, hundreds of ecologically compromised locations in the U.S. have been officially listed for remediation by the EPA. While some sites are responsibly treated, others remain improperly addressed; many of which are integrated into our communities. Although some sites appear visually toxic, others appear innocuous or mundane, and despite remaining present, impactful, and worrisome upon discovery, the biggest concerns are often hidden in plain sight.
In photographically documenting five sites across New York and New Jersey, Somewhere Nearby addresses the heterogeneous appearances of ecologically compromised locations, raising the question: Why and how are we so resigned to living with surrounding toxicity? Merging psychological with ecological considerations, this project encourages viewers to remain perceptive toward the condition of our surroundings.
Habituation – the tendency to diminish in physiological or emotional response to a stimulus when presented repeatedly over time – becomes the main antagonist in this body of work. From a survival standpoint, habituation serves as an adaptive response to efficiently allocate attention to things less commonly experienced in one’s environment, such as unexpected threats. However, if we face threatening conditions frequently, we may still habituate to them over time, therefore diminishing our reactions to them.
Toxicity from Superfund Sites has become integrated in New York and New Jersey in ways that negatively impact the health of surrounding communities. As of March 2022, the presence of 1333 Superfund entries on the U.S. EPA National Priorities List is enough to raise alarm, but we must also recognize that those who are most often relegated to living in such proximity are the economically disadvantaged, with limited alternatives for residences. In this regard, land in close proximity to Superfund Sites is often less valuable due to an associated stigma or lack of affordable development opportunities, and so the communities affected seldom experience reprieve. This is especially bothersome as environmental toxicity knows no hard boundaries -- chemicals leech, pollutants spread through the air, and we are often none the wiser.
In the end, the reasons for sites’ issues are widely varied, but regardless of the cause we owe it to ourselves and future generations to respond by remaining perceptive to the conditions of our surrounding environment so that one day, we are not but frogs boiled alive.
