No Fracking Required

Walking into the Handwerker Gallery at Ithaca College, I’ll admit I was a little skeptical as to if I would enjoy and truly be able to take in all of the artwork presented. To my surprise, I was truly taken away by the moments the artists captured. The photography exhibit "The Marcellus Shale Documentary Project.”, showed how the environment and people were being affected by fracking.

Besides the signs around towns everywhere that contain the word frack with a red circle and cross, I had never known what fracking truly was. With a little research I came to find that fracking is a newer technology that drills for oil horizontally in order to reach oil reserves underlying Ohio and Pennsylvania. The goal is to blast open shale rock at high pressure with water, sand and chemicals to release the gas trapped inside and use it. Fracking causes water supplies to be poisoned in a way. This is because of the fact that chemicals get mixed into this water that soon reaches people.

In the art gallery, I was especially affected by the pictures taken of families and individuals who had been negatively affected by fracking. Of all the photographers works presented, Nina Barman’s affected me the most. In the picture with the child, Nina states “Tamara Horn’s son, Aiden, showing the rashes on his face that his parents say are a result of drinking and using contaminated water”. I think this piece spoke to me the most out of all of them because it captures the innocence of the child. This fracking is being done in order to get gas and the negative effects are not always seen. The simple actions of being able to drink water or bathe are typical needs for a child and they cannot be done without giving him health problems like rashes. It also shows how unhealthy it is for fracking to occur. There were so many photographs of individuals and families that are harmed by fracking, it is truly heart wrenching.

 

Another photograph that influenced me greatly was by Scott Goldsmith. It was a photo of “water on fire due to the natural gas bubbling up from a natural spring”. I think this touched me specifically because of the fact that it was stated horses were drinking this weeks before. Water should be all natural and not contain any chemicals whatsoever, the fact that it was able to catch fire is in my mind is disheartening. The bright orange and yellows on in the photo drew my attention compared to the dark earthy tones in the background. It drew me in initially and the description behind it impacted more.

 

After walking through this art show I can truly say I was impacted by the photographs that were placed around the gallery. I never really knew what fracking was before today and I never knew all the negative effects it had on the environment and people around these sites. Fracking is a serious issue that I can now say I am genuinely concerned about. It was a truly moving experience to see the photos. 

To read more about fracking you can go to:

 http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3254

http://www.theoec.org/Fracking?gclid=CJ3tupP3srkCFYSf4AodJz0AsQ

To watch a video to see what fracking does to drinking water:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBjSXWQRV8