The city of Chicago sits on the edge of one of
the Great Lakes – Lake Michigan – and it is also surrounded by several types of
bodies of water from swamps to creeks, and rivers to streams. “Before the first
skyscrapers or the Second City, wedged between Lake Michigan and
the branches of the Chicago River, a city rose at the crossroads of
America, what became the nation's third coast,” (Van Winkle). Chicago is not
just a mere city; rather it is a stepping-stone in the creation of modern-day
America. It did not take long for settlers to make a name for themselves along
the coast of Lake Michigan, and therein lays the problem; “Chicago’s rapid
growth also took an environmental toll on the city’s primary waterway…the river
was a source of livelihood in the pre-industrial age and developed into a
resource for mills, waste dumping and shipping as the industrial revolution
took hold,” (Van Winkle). Chicago grew too rapidly for her own good. The
original settlers knew the benefit of having a water source at their back door
and later on, the people of Chicago chose to grow their industrial businesses
on the Chicago River especially.
The Chicago River is: “…shallow and slow moving
but it had much potential because [of] what it provided the settlers…the key to
a system of water routes that connects the waters of the mid-continent to the
open waters of the Great Lakes [and] drink, food, and a safe harbor,"
(Lee). The Chicago River holds hands with Chicago’s portion of Lake Michigan’s
Eastern shoreline. The original river flowed directly into the Lake, and with
it, the pollution and disease that came with the city’s industrial growth, as
stated in one article: “Cholera and typhoid epidemics ravaged the city at the
time as polluted river water flowed into the lake, the source of the city’s
drinking water,” (Van Winkle). As one of the main contributors to the pollution
was the stockyards, who dumped their unused animal parts directly into the
river, the river became unsafe from bacteria and filth in general. When the
diseased water flowed into the Lake, and subsequently everyone’s drinking and
bathing water, the population of Chicago quickly dwindled.
The photograph is of the area of the Chicago
River known as Bubbly Creek due to the enormous amounts of pollution that made
the river “bubble”, although this photograph was taken after the pollution had
begun to be cleared out due to man’s engineering a complete reversal of the
entire river so that it flowed in the opposite direction. Little is known about
the photograph itself, and even less is known about the photographer. All that
is known is what is read from the photograph itself in conjunction with its
historical background. Looking at the outside forces that impacted the
photograph, more specifically, the equipment used to take the photograph, it
can be read that the water droplets that came, assumedly, from a slight drizzle
in the area on the day that the photograph was captured, rest on the camera
lens almost as a group of tears shed for the tragedy that befell the Chicago
River. The specks of dirt that litter the camera’s lens add to the overall
soiled feeling. The fact that this photograph is in black and white is due to
the limited technology in the early 1900’s, but the overall black, white, and
grey feeling in this photograph leaves the viewer with a sense of what dull and
dreary colors were actually present at the time. Furthermore, the choice to
take this photograph on such an overcast and depressing day completely changes
the tone from the way it would have looked if it was a bright and sunny day. This
technique is called low key lighting, and it creates dramatic contrasts which aids
the photograph in giving off an unsettling feeling.
The image itself is a full-shot, meaning that it
is a shot of a subject – the man in the overcoat – that includes his entire
body as well as a portion of the environment. In this case, the term “environment”
is taken literally. This is also a high-angle shot which gives the viewer a sense
of looking down upon the subject, in this case, the viewer is forced to look down
on the pollution and the damage man has done to the river that gave its city life.
The backdrop of the river is left blurry
due to the shallow focus used to take the photograph so that it is washed out
due to the mist and to the distance, advocating the negative feelings this
photograph initially invokes. The buildings on the right are reflected
perfectly and clearly in the very still river so as to call upon the viewers’
feelings of loneliness. The riverbank behind the man is foaming, yet looking
across the river at the still waters show that the river is not moving. This
shows the viewer that this is not a scene with roaring rapids that could churn
up a foamy bank, but rather a still-polluted river that needs very little
motion to bubble over thus retaining the name of Bubbly Creek.
The area beyond the man shows that the
photograph has a large depth of field; the detail in the background, while
blurry and distorted by the mist as well as the distance, still contains plenty
of information, especially in the form of lines. Lines can draw the viewers’
eyes around the picture, and eventually to the vanishing point, which aids the
viewer in comprehending the general environment. The fact that the photographer
chose that spot and lined up the camera in that exact angle shows that the
photograph is intended to show the overall atmosphere of this piece of Bubbly
Creek.
The main character in the photograph, aside from
the environment, is the man in the overcoat. Generally, when viewing any
photograph, the eye is immediately drawn to the brightest area, but in the case
of this picture, the viewer’s eye is drawn to the center-most figure, and that
is the man; the attention placed on the man is aided by the fact that the
camera is focused on him as well as the sludge that he is standing in. The
water around the sludge and the slight reflection on the river directly behind
the man are the brightest parts of the photograph; conversely, the darkest
figures in the photograph are the man and the man-made buildings that help
produce the sludge that the he is able to stand on. In conjunction with the
history of the Chicago River, this reversal in form represents the reversal of
the river itself.
The feelings evoked from this photograph are
unsettling. Without acknowledging the historical background of the image, it is
easy to write it off as a sad scene; in reality, it is anything but. When
adding the background information about the image, it turns into a terrible and
disgusting scene that was almost as bad as it could get. The lack of sunlight
on the day this was taken leaves the man without a shadow, further adding feelings
of loneliness and despair. The gritty quality of the photograph that came as
par for the course in photography in the early 1900’s only gives it an
additional raw and intimate feeling, as well as a sense of the man's disgust
and disappointment, while his pose gives a feeling of ashamedness because the
pollution and degradation shown in this picture is the fault of man and their
machine. The fact that most of the items in the image are in the foreground
leaves the viewer with a sense of this issue invading their personal space,
reminding everyone that the problem of the pollution is a personal issue as it
impacts every citizen who lives anywhere near the river. All in all, the
photograph rips into the viewers minds and induces a general unpleasant feeling
that will, hopefully, enlighten people to the problems of pollution, and what
it does to the world as well as what it will still do, years down the road.
In summation, this photograph is an important
addition to maritime literature as it depicts a time when the entire city of
Chicago nearly ceased to exist. The river depicted in the photograph is
historically significant, as Lee points out, “The history of the Chicago River is one of the most important
features of Chicago history.” The history includes the mass amount of pollution
that riddled the water, and killed over five percent of the population before
initial measures were taken. The original pollution still impacts the river to
this day. “The Chicago River today is very much improved and continues to
improve each day. Although the river has toxic sediment, the water quality is
much cleaner because of increasingly efficient water treatment systems,” (Lee).
The river is doing much better thanks to improvements made to change the
degradation that is depicted in the photograph into the strong banks it has
today, but the waters are still unable to be safely fished, safely swam in, or
safely ingested, even though it has been well over 100 years since the Chicago
river’s was reversed in order to fix its problems and save the lives of
countless Chicagoans, Lee reminds the readers that, "Chicago owes its
existence to the Chicago River and the river owes its present form to
Chicago." This photograph shows the viewer how close America came to
losing both the river and the city due to the settlers mistreating the river.
Perhaps more importantly, on a global scale, this photograph is also a reminder
of man’s impact on the world as a whole.
Lee, Sylvia. "The
Reversal of the Chicago River in 1900." Illinois Periodicals
Online.
Northern Illinois University, Apr. 2001. Web. 21
Oct. 2015.
<http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/ihy010452.html>.
Van Winkle, Kate.
"Chicago River Played a Critical Part in City's
Development." Medill/Northwestern.edu.
Northwestern University, 30 Jan.
2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.
<http://newsarchive.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news214797.html>.
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