Documenting America

To mark its one year anniversary in 1971, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unleashed over 100 professional photographers across America. It's goal, to carry out the country's first comprehensive documentation of its environment. They called the project "Documerica" and immediately made all photos available to the press, publishers, researchers, and the general public. "Available" today is a lot more available than it was in the '70s. Now they are being published online with the help of the U.S. National Archives, in what will ultimately be a 15,000 photo collection on Flickr.

Here, early street art, so widespread and unchecked that it covers the flat surfaces of New York's 1973 subway cars.

[Original caption: "Many Subway Cars in New York City Have Been Spray Painted by Vandals. 05/1973" - photo by Eric Callonius]

["Times Square Subway Station and Subway Graffitti 05/1973" - photo by E.C.]

Most interesting to me, in this overwhelmingly interesting series of photographs, is the liberty the photographers took with the term "environment."

You have the photos you'd expect from an EPA photo documentary, like this juxtaposition of new industry and old farmland:

["The Atlas Company Belches Smoke across Pasture Land in Foreground. 06/1972" - photo by Marc St. Gill]

And then you have photos like these:

["Washington Square in Greenwich Village, 05/1973" - Photo by E.C.]

["Climbing Out from the Head of Water Canyon, near the Maze, a Remote and Rugged Region in the Heart of the Canyonlands. Water Canyon is So Called Because of a Spring in the Canyon Which Furnishes a Good Supply of Pure Water, a Rarity in This Region. The Rope is Climbed by Using Mechanical Ascenders, Small Devices Which Slide Up the Rope But Not Down, 05/1972" - photo by David Hiser]

["Edward Austin, 64, Lives in the Black Portion of Fierco, a Small Town near Beckley, West Virginia, in Raleigh County. He Receives Black Lung Benefits and a United Mine Workers Pension, after Working in the Mines from 1925 to 1956. He Has 20 Children and Does Not Regret Having Them One Bit 04/1974" - photo by Jack Corn]

Here is the Flickr Page, where all photos can be viewed and downloaded in high res:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/collections/72157620729903309/

Excellent.