DOCUMERICA

File:LosAngelesHeavySmog91973.jpg

Heavy smog in Los Angeles, 1973.

DOCUMERICA was a program sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to "photographically document subjects of environmental concern" in the USA from about 1972 to 1977.

File:TexasPotGals1973StGil.jpg

Women smoking pot, Texas, 1973.

File:THE STATE OF OREGON WAS THE FIRST TO GO TO A SYSTEM OF ODD AND EVEN NUMBERS DURING THE GASOLINE CRISIS IN THE FALL... - NARA - 555489.jpg

Gas shortage due to oil crisis, Portland, OR, 1973.

The images were made by approximately 70 well-known photographers contracted by the EPA for this project. Photographers included Danny Lyon, Gene Daniels, Marc St. Gil, Anne LaBastille, Bill Strode, Charles O'Rear, Jack Corn, Tomas Sennett, Erik Calonius, Yoichi Okamoto, Ken Hayman, and John H. White.

Some of the subjects photographed are urban cityscapes, everyday life in small towns, scenes of natural beauty including beaches and mountains, urban areas including junk yards, pollution treatment, highways, air quality and heavy industry; Amtrak; air and water pollution; waterfronts; mining and logging scenes; farms; and people, including workers in industry, environmental protection, farming, and mining. Among the areas included are National Parks and Forests, environmentally sensitive areas that were under development or considered for government protection, the planned route of the Alaska Pipeline, Hawaii and Washington, D.C.. The project even included some photographs of Canada, Yugoslavia and Austria

Details

Like the photographers of the Federal photographic project of the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression, some of the DOCUMERICA photographers interpreted their mission rather broadly, and sometimes artistically. Many of the photographs preserve a distinct visual record of time and place.

Digital scans of over 15,000 of the original 35 mm color slides and black and white negatives and prints are available through the National Archives and Records Administration's Archival Research Catalog.

The color of many of the original negatives has degraded.

The book Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project (D Giles, 2013), edited by Bruce I. Bustard, features 100 images from the project.

In 2013 the string quartet ETHEL created a multimedia show called ETHEL's Documerica which incorporated images from the DOCUMERICA archives. The show premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is currently on a national tour managed by Baylin Artists Management.

Gallery

• VACATIONERS ON MOTORCYCLES - NARA - 544844.jpg

  Bikers in Colorado, 1972

• FERTILIZING IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. (FROM THE DOCUMERICA-1 EXHIBITION. FOR OTHER IMAGES IN THIS ASSIGNMENT, SEE FICHE... - NARA - 553048.jpg

  Fertilizing the Imperial Valley, CA, 1972

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  Suburbanization, Orange County, CA, 1975

• APARTMENT TERRACE GARDEN OF A FAMILY AT 170 WEST END AVENUE IN NEW YORK CITY - NARA - 555523.jpg

  Nature in New York City, 1974

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  Children at a Brooklyn beach, 1974

• ONCE ONE OF CHICAGO'S BUSY THOROUGHFARES, 63RD STREET HAS CHANGED WITH THE CHARACTER OF THE CITY. MANY FIRES HAVE... - NARA - 556202.jpg

  63rd Street, Chicago, 1973

• DEAD DUCK PULLED FROM A FIVE ACRE POND FILLED WITH ACID WATER, OIL AND ACID CLAY SLUDGE. UNWARY ANIMALS WHICH CAME TO... - NARA - 555854.jpg

  Duck killed by polluted pond, Utah, 1974

• CLARK AVENUE BRIDGE IS RENDERED ALMOST INVISIBLE BY HEAVY INDUSTRIAL SMOKE - NARA - 550173.jpg

  Air pollution, Cleveland, OH, 1973

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  Jesse Jackson, Chicago, 1973

• VIEW WEST TO PORT VALDEZ, THE GLACIAL FIORD THAT WILL BE THE TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE TERMINUS, WITH ROBE LAKE IN THE... - NARA - 555683.jpg

  Future terminus of Trans-Alaska Pipeline, 1974

• MINER IN THE BLACK LUNG LABORATORY AT THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL HOSPITAL IN BECKLEY, WEST VIRGINIA, UNDERGOING TESTS... - NARA - 556570.jpg

  Testing in the black lung laboratory, West Virginia, 1974

External links

• Documerica Project at the National Archives and Records Administration
• DOCUMERICA at Flickr