A few weeks ago President Obama announced he would delay a final decision on the Keystone pipeline for one year. Now in a cynical political move Republicans are attempting to attach Keystone to the President’s jobs bill. This is a terrible plan and should be scrapped. Not only would the building of the pipeline itself cut a swath across six states, cross major rivers and threaten critical drinking and agricultural water sources, it says nothing of the oil it would transport.

Of course major oil companies and construction conglomerates such as Bechtel think it’s a great idea. It could certainly be argued that the enormous pipeline project would create jobs, but a deeper investigation would reveal the trade off would simply not be worth the ultimate price. Keystone would transport oil produced from Canada’s tar sands and while I’m certainly not opposed to some of the benefits of reducing our dependence on oil from the middle east, this is not the kind of oil we need to be producing.

I visited the Athabasca Valley region in Alberta, where the major tar sands production takes place, three years ago on an editorial assignment for Bloomberg Markets Magazine and what I witnessed shocked me. This is a near zero gain, environmentally devastating process. Let me explain.

The first step is the virgin boreal forest must be clearcut. The land is then strip mined for the sand which has oil embedded in it. Trucks transport the sand to processing facilites where the oil is extracted essentially by super heating with steam. It requires massive amounts of fresh water taken from the Athabasca River only a tiny fraction of which is clean enough to return. The toxic water left behind, some 90+% is then pumped into massive tailing ponds, some of the largest structures ever built by humans, currently covering 50 sq miles and easily visible from space. These massive toxic lakes of tailings are deadly to migratory waterfowl, killing thousands annually.

As if this weren’t enough the process produces three times the carbon emissions of normal oil extraction. The natural gas used to process tar sands in one day could heat 3 million homes. Considered too expensive previously oil produced from tar sand has only in recent years become feasible, due to high worldwide oil prices. I won’t venture what role our middle east wars have played in raising the price of oil but the connection seems obvious.

Coming from someone who drives a car, rides motorcycles and takes an occasional airplane, all this criticism might sound hypocritical. But building the Keystone pipeline will hand oil companies an incentive to expand production of this dirty oil, further increasing carbon emissions, keeping oil prices inflated and doing nothing to solve our dependence on oil. Our entire economy may be based on petroleum consumption but we’ve got to find a better way than this.

For more reading, John Lippert’s excellent story in Bloomberg can be found here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nw&pname=mm_0308_story1.html

National Geographic has another excellent story here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text/1

Andy Adams recently posted a query on Flak Photo Network (Facebook) asking if there were any Disfarmer fans. I sent him this message:

Re: Disfarmer, long story
I first discovered his work in about ‘76 when I was a photography student and it had a great impression on me. I was studying at Visual Studies Workshop at the time but my family owned a cabin in the Heber Springs area (I grew up in southern Arkansas). For years I thought about going back to Heber Springs to pursue a project to re-photograph some of his original subjects, but I never pursued it. Then in 1992 I mentioned the idea to a friend who was also a fan of his work. My friend convinced me I should try to do it, so I got a Heber Springs phone book and indeed found a number of the original subjects listed. I made a plan to spend a month there doing some initial work on it, so I loaded my truck and drove to Northern Arkansas from my home in Oregon in early June of 92.

On arrival I made a phone call to the first person listed in the phone book. We spoke and I explained what I wanted to do, to photograph some of Disfarmer’s original subjects in a fashion as similar to his as I could repeat. The man replied “Oh, like that lady from New York did”. I said “What, who?” He said, “Oh yeah she lived here for more than a year and took all kinds of pictures of us Disfarmer folks” (paraphrasing). “There’s a collection of the pictures down at the art center”.

So I headed down there and sure enough a woman by the name of Toba Tucker had done the very project I had envisioned. I was crushed. What made it all the worse, is knowing I had sat on the idea for 15 years. A lesson of some kind I suppose.

I was crushed by the discovery of her project but in a weird way I was relieved, to not face the possibility of failing in my own effort. His influence certainly lives in my work, especially the Delta portraits as well as other portrait work.
Anyway, that’s my Disfarmer story.
Cheers,
Robbie

A recent project completed for Tri-Met, working with Josh Berger (of Plazm fame), Doug Lowell, Sarah Cline and Camela Raymond at ID Branding. Still photographs are edited into short video clips accompanied by interviews with the various subjects. See the videos here:
http://whatmakesthisplacegreat.com/

A few recently published assignments,
Tad McGeer founded Aerovel which designs and builds unmanned aircraft out of a converted home near Bingen Washington, for Smithsonian. Link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Drones-are-Ready-for-Takeoff.html

Portland timbers owner Merritt Paulson, for ESPN the Magazine:

Bandon Dunes Caddies, for Sports Illustrated:

I love that show Storm Chasers, where they try to drive their heavily armored vehicles into tornadoes. As I child I was terrified of tornadoes but I now revel in the violence of powerful storms. Watching these guys drive right up next to the most powerful force in nature is mind blowing.

So it was a nice surprise when I recognized Marcus Guttierrez in a recent episode. Marcus is a film maker who specializes in capturing footage of natural disasters for IMAX productions. I met him and photographed him while on assignment for Fortune as he patiently waited on the flank of Mt. St. Helens in 2004 for a catastrophic eruption. He was excited about the the footage he would record if a massive explosion along the lines of the 1980 eruption occurred.

I pointed out that we were standing well within the blast zone of the 1980 event and that if it occurred, we’d be toast.

One of the best things about shooting film is the magic of seeing the images for the first time, the confirmation of a vision realized, or disappointment in the failing. I sometimes collect random rolls of film and for no good reason, not process them for some time, but rather let them collect in a box for years before finally getting them processed. I just went through a batch and the anticipation of seeing what was on those rolls reminded me of those early years when every time out it was an adventure. Amongst these half dozen rolls were 35mm color negs, some color 120 from a Holga, a couple B&W 35mm.s and even a roll of 620 Kodacolor II that had to be 30 years old. In fact I don’t even know what camera it went through. As you might imagine image quality was not great on some of these rolls but it did offer up a few nice surprises including the above taken in Houma Louisiana during Mardis Gras in 2006, as well as a few more I’ll post over on Miscellaneous over the next few days or so.

I wish I could say I was regular at Satyricon, it would make me sound much cooler than I really am. But the truth is by 1989 when I moved to Portland my punk rock days were mostly behind me. I had trashed my ears years earlier at places like the Triangle Theater in Rochester, CBGB in NYC, Continental Club in Austin and the Hot Klub in Dallas, as well as numerous other such venues.
But I did see a few shows at Satyricon in the early 90’s, no one of note and none I truly remember with the exception of Austin country/folk/roots songwriter Darden Smith, who was so completely out of his element at Satyricon that the baffled crowd of club regulars found themselves entranced by his evocative accoustic storytelling.
Even so I was saddened to learn the club was closing for good. Another piece of authenticity lost in a Portland that is fast selling it’s soul to hipster artifice. The place was legendary in the Northwest music scene hosting anyone who was anyone at one time or another. According to legend Kurt met Courtney there, Foo Fighters played their first show there. It was a classic punk dive, all black with tattered chairs, cheap beer and lots of attitude. A real shithole, with the emphasis on real. It was all about the music, not much else mattered.
Willamette Week just published a good piece with some video clips, (I like the Jackals clip) you can read here.
The following pictures were from a 1994 travel assignment for the New York Times. Crash Worship was the head liner that night but I bailed out of there before all that craziness got started after getting into a scuffle with one their drummers. I think the band on stage as I was shooting was called Plastic Horn Devils, or something.

This oil spill in the Gulf scares me. While the slick hovers just off shore we can continue to focus our collective attention on more important matters, such as celebrity affairs. But soon, when it smothers the Louisiana estuaries, covers the powder white beaches of the Florida Gulf coast, cycles into the Gulf stream and moves across the Atlantic the scale of this environmental disaster will demand we take notice.

Apart from destroying the culture and cuisine of southern Louisiana and ruining the tourist trade in Florida we’re witnessing something of a biblical scale. The damage (we can’t even see now) from underwater slicks created by chemical dispersants, that are settling to the sea floor, will take centuries to repair.

In my work I’ve photographed many oil production facilities and seen the damage done. Our thirst for oil leads us into wars and incalculable environmental impacts. But I’m also an oil consumer. I drive too much, prefer my motorcycle to a bicycle and reap the benefits of living in an oil driven economy.

Perhaps continuing to develop and produce oil in sensitive habitats and the subsequent destruction of those same habitats, is just another price we pay. A cynic might even suggest the people of southern Louisiana who have benefited from the petroleum industry for decades are just getting a little payback. Live by the sword……If there was any real justice some kind of water spout would pick up the slick and deposit it on the skyscrapers in Dallas.

Suncor Millenium tar sand extraction plant site & tailing pond w/ earthen dam adjacent to the Athabasca River near Ft McMurray Alberta, November 2008

Syncrude tar sand extraction and upgrade plant near Ft McMurray Alberta, November 2008

Oil well outside Canyonlands National Park, Utah 2002

Oil sludge containment pond outside Canyonlands National Park, Utah 2002

Oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez in the Bay of Isles in Prince William Sound, Alaska – November, 1990

Oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez on a beach in Prince William Sound, November 1990