Wordless Wednesday: Naples, Italy
View from a window in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.
Category: design
Vintage landscape: Poca, WV
“Water cooling towers of the John Amos Power Plant* loom over Poca, [West Virginia], home that is on the other side of the Kanawha River. Two of the towers emit great clouds of steam.”
This photo† (shown here with original caption) was taken in August 1973 by Harry Schaefer for DOCUMERICA, a photography project of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
*Three-unit coal-fired power plant.
†Via the U.S. National Archives Commons on flickr.
The Sunday porch: Chicago
“Housing and back porches in the inner city of uptown Chicago, Illinois, a neighborhood of poor white southerners. The inner city today is an absolute contradiction [from] the main stream America of gas stations, expressways, shopping centers and tract homes. It is populated by Blacks, Latins and the white poor. Some of the best American architecture survives in her “worst” neighborhoods.”
This photo* was taken by Danny Lyon in August 1974 for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It’s shown here with the original caption, presumably written by the photographer.
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
*Via the U.S. National Archives Commons on flickr.
Vintage landscape: Chicago mural
“Deteriorated wall mural adjacent to a vacant lot on 35th Street in South Side Chicago. Many Black artists are active in painting outdoor murals in the city’s Black communities. They feel it is a means of sharing art with people of the ghetto who never go to the museums.”
This July 1973 photo was taken by John H. White for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It’s shown here with the original caption.
The EPA hired over 100 photographers to “document subjects of environmental concern.” The work continued until 1977 and left behind an archive of about 20,000 images.
In addition to recording damage to the nation’s landscapes, the project captured “the era’s trends, fashions, problems, and achievements,” according to the U.S. National Archives, which held an exhibit of the photos, “Searching for the Seventies,” in 2013.
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
Vintage landscape: Los Angeles
“Flowers planted around Spyglass homes built on a terraced hillside[, Los Angeles], May 1975.”
This photo was taken by Charles O’Rear for DOCUMERICA, a 1970’s photography program of the Environmental Protection Agency.
There are more pictures from DOCUMERICA here.
enclos*ure 