Petrochemical America

Petrochemical America offers an in-depth analysis of the causes of sustained environmental abuse along the largest river system in North America. It combines Richard Misrach´s haunting photographs of Louisiana´s "Chemical Corridor" with landscape architect Kate Orff´s "Ecological Atlas"--a series of speculative drawings developed through intensive research and mapping of data from the region. Misrach and Orff´s joint effort depicts and unpacks the complex cultural, physical and economic ecologies of a particular region along 150 miles of the Mississippi River, from Baton Rouge to New Orleans--an area of intense chemical production that became known as "Cancer Alley" when unusually high occurrences of the disease were discovered in the region. This revelatory collaboration has resulted in a complex document and an extensively researched guidebook to the ways in which the petrochemical industry has permeated every facet of contemporary life. However complicated by the region´s own histories and particularities, "Cancer Alley" may well be an apt metaphor for the global impact of petrochemicals on the human landscape as a whole.