THE BURDEN OF PROOF:
People’s Story of Water Contamination
In the summer of 2012, I drove to Louisiana, Texas and Michigan to speak with people affected by contaminated water. Whether it was an oil spill, a coal plant, hydraulic fracturing or the disposal of ‘salt water’, every family told of health problems, economical hardships and ecological loss; stories we are all too familiar with yet knowing nothing about.
I began to see it’s not just the gas or oil that kills people. It’s when people put money before life; when they choose to dump chemical waste in poor residential areas or not to repair a leaking pipeline. People constantly make decisions that impact the lives of others. We often fall into both categories unknowingly. It’s not egocentric to say that it is all because of people and about people. Just consider:
What kind of person would let toxic chemicals leak out and slowly kill a community?
What kind of person sprays oil dispersant on unprotected clean up workers?
What kind of person covers up oil with dirt and then builds a children’s playground on top?
What kind of lawyer forces a double amputee to settle for $600?
What kind of doctor refuses to test the blood of a cancer patient as soon as he mentions fracking?
What kind of politician votes to exempt oil and gas companies from the clean water act?
I set out to make portraits with a strong aesthetic appeal. Portraiture has an incomparable strength that confirms one’s unique existence. My goal was to capture both the dignity and tragedy of my subjects.
Burden of proof is a term often used in legal, scientific and philosophical fields describing the obligation that a proposition has to provide evidence in order to validate itself. My portraits are an alternative way to examine the truth because the legal system has failed them.
In China, where I was born and raised, human rights are largely disregarded. Stories in the States are similar but at least people can speak out. When I photograph these kind, hard-working Americans, I think about my own people back home.
Ruoyi Jiang
November 2012
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