A visual history of inequality in industrial America

Along the ancient path
of the Monongahela River,

Braddock, Pennsylvania, sits
in the eastern region of Allegheny County,

approximately nine miles
outside of Pittsburgh.

An industrial suburb,

Braddock is home
to Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill,

the Edgar Thomson Works.

Operating since 1875,

it is the last functioning steel mill

in the region.

For 12 years, I have produced
collaborative portraits,

still lives, landscapes, and aerial views

in order to build a visual archive

to address the intersection

of the steel industry,

the environment,

and the health care system's impact

on the bodies of my family and community.

The tradition and grand
narrative of Braddock

is mostly comprised of stories

of industrialists and trade unions.

Currently, the new narrative
about Braddock,

a poster child for Rust Belt
revitalization,

is a story of urban pioneers

discovering a new frontier.

Mass media has omitted the fact

that Braddock is predominantly black.

Our existence has been co-opted,

silenced, and erased.

Fourth generation

in a lineage of women,

I was raised under the protection and care

of Grandma Ruby,

off 8th Street

at 805 Washington Avenue.

She worked as a manager for Goodwill.

Mom was a nurse's aid.

She watched the steel mills close

and white flight to suburban developments.

By the time my generation
walked the streets,

disinvestment at the local,

state, and federal level

eroded infrastructure,

and the War on Drugs

dismantled my family and community.

Grandma Ruby's stepfather Gramps

was one of a few black men to retire
from Carnegie's mill with his pension.

He worked in high temperatures,

tearing down and rebuilding furnaces,

cleaning up spilt metal and slag.

The history of a place is written

on the body and the landscape.

Areas of heavy truck traffic,

exposure to benzene and atomized metals,

risk cancer and lupus.

123 licensed beds, 652 employees:

rehabilitation programs, decimated.

A housing discrimination lawsuit
against Allegheny County

removed where the projects
Talbot Towers once stood.

Recent rezoning for more light industry

has since appeared.

Google Maps and Google Earth pixellations

conceal the flammable waste

being used to squeeze the Bunn Family
off their home and land.

In 2013, I chartered a helicopter

with my cameras to document

this aggressive dispossession.

In flight, my observation reveals

thousands of plastic white bundles

owned by a conservation industry

that claims it's eco-friendly

and recycles millions of tires

to preserve people's lives

and to improve people's lives.

My work spirals from the micro

to the macro level,

excavating hidden histories.

Recently, at the Seattle Art Museum,

Isaac Bunn and I mounted this exhibition,

and the exhibition was used
as a platform to launch his voice.

Through reclamation of our narrative,

we will continue to fight historic erasure

and socioeconomic inequality.

Thank you.

(Applause)