Gaining Perspective

Monday, April 22, 1996

The Kerckhoff Art Gallery’s new exhibit of photographs and
posters examines environmental justice and humanity’s relationship
to our surroundings.By Rodney Tanaka

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The future of the environment lies in the wisdom of a young girl
dying of cancer, in a mountain of concrete piling up behind a
residential neighborhood and on an overcrowded bus.

The new exhibit at the Kerckhoff Art Gallery, "Hazards in our
Environments: Who Bears the Burdens?" examines environmental issues
with photographs and posters. The photographs are part of a larger
collection of work organized by Elijah Carder called the
"Environmental and Economic Justice Exhibit."

"The exhibit as a whole gives a sense of community, gives a
sense of the problems and a sense of what the community is doing to
correct the problem," says Carder. "Environmental justice is
defined as where we live, work and play."

One section of the exhibit focuses on children of farm workers
in the San Joaquin Valley. The photos, taken by Victor Aleman,
depict children suffering from exposure to pesticides. Aleman
worked for 10 years on publications by the United Farm Workers of
America.

"My responsibility is to document my environment wherever I go,"
Aleman says. "If I see something that is not right with the course
of human life my obligation is to record the human conditions."

"That’s all I can do," Aleman adds. "I hope those images make
(viewers) do at least one good thing to better our human
condition."

One image shows a girl quarantined in her bedroom because of her
battle with a brain tumor. Aleman says that she could not go
outside to play and visitors had to wear masks to protect her from
infections.

"She wanted to be a nurse, to (prevent) children from suffering
as much as she was suffering," Aleman says. "These little kids that
are so small and have suffered so much are so sensitive, they come
out with amazing things about life."

A concrete mountain casts a shadow on the surrounding community.
The concrete recycling center in Huntington Park has created health
problems for neighborhood residents, according to photographer and
UCLA alumna Roxane Auer. Her photographs chronicle residents’
struggle for stricter regulations for the plant.

"The southeast Los Angeles area has got the dirtiest air in the
whole county," Auer says. "All these centers, metal plating,
incinerators, recycling facilities, for the entire Los Angeles area
get put in southeast L.A. or in low income communities of
color."

Auer also photographed garment workers in downtown Los Angeles
toiling at their sewing machines. One picture shows workers toiling
at numbered stations.

"It’s indicative of the mentality of the contractors and
manufacturers toward the immigrant work force," Auer says. "They’re
basically numbers, people to do as much work as possible for as
little money as possible."

Two photographs give two perspectives of the workers, a close-up
and a long shot.

"The close-up is to give someone a human feeling for the work
that’s being done," Auer says. "The long shot is to give someone a
feeling of the environment in which they have to work."

Photographs of life on the streets of Los Angeles show the
environment in which some children have to live. Police sweep the
streets looking for gang members. A wall becomes the epitaph of
fallen friends, their names written amongst other graffiti. These
photographs represent the initial focus of the exhibit.

"It began with showing the homeless and how young people have
been put into the whole criminal system and an apathy towards how
the society has created these conditions," Carder says. "We really
wanted to spark discussion about how we can move to correct and
change what’s happening."

The Bus Riders Union attempts to change what happens with Los
Angeles’ public transportation with cleaner buses and affordable
fares. The Union’s section of the exhibit explains their battle and
shows the conditions of the buses.

"If you look at the area around (the bus stop), it’s not the
nicest area," says Lorena Barillas, from the Labor Community
Strategy Center. "Then you see the inside of an overcrowded bus.
This really illustrates the conditions that people have to ride.
Who are the faces you see in the bus? A lot of them are people of
color and women."

The face on the bus, the face of a dying girl and the face of a
mountain of concrete link together in this exhibit. The images will
be discussed at a reception on Tuesday, part of the activities by
the UCLA Environmental Coalition commemorating Earth Week.

"There is a saying that ‘I am of the earth and the earth is of
me,’" Carder says. "Whatever you do to the earth you’re going to do
to yourself and to human beings and whatever you do to human beings
you are doing to the earth as well."

ART: "Hazards in Our Environments: Who Bears the Burdens?" at
the Kerckhoff Art Gallery through April 26. Reception Tuesday,
April 23 at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more info, call (310)
206-4438.

Photos by Elijah Carder and Patrick Ramsey bring to life the
real-world environments of people across the country. The photos
are part of the current exhibit at the Kerckhoff Art Gallery,
"Hazards in our Environments: Who Bears the Burdens?"