in “the day after tomorrow: images of our earth in crisis, j. henry fair documents the toxic industrial processes polluting our planet in the hope of effectuating change in consumer behaviour.
as he says, “i began to photograph all these things with an eye to making them both beautiful and frightening simultaneously. …they bring into sharp relief the catastrophic damage wreaked by the production of oil, coal power, and paper - the products most of us consume, in some form or other, on a daily basis.”
but, he adds, “they are captivating in the same way that timeless pieces by the great abstract expressionists are. … and because they are so beautiful, people want to learn more about what is going on in each image.”
where the third photo, for example, shows waste from a pulp and paper mill in louisiana which supplies large name brands, fair hopes that in seeing it consumers might ultimately ask for toilet paper to be made from old newspapers instead of old growth forests.
the other photos show the tar sands in fort mcmurray (1); arctic iron mining (2); mountaintop removal in west virginia (4); waste from a herbicide manufacturing plant in louisiana (5); ash waste at a coal power station in south carolina (6); impoundments for washed phosphate by products in florida (7); and bauxite waste from aluminium production in louisiana (8)