A recent project from photographer Carlan Tapp has been published on the burn. website - an evolving journal for emerging photographers, curated by Magnum photographer David Allen Harvey.
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Moved by December 2008 reports of a spill of fly ash (the combustion waste generated in the burning of coal for the generating of electricity) in Kingston, TN, Carlan set out to document a situation he felt was being down-played in the media. He worked for eight days photographing and interviewing the residents of the area closest to the Kingston electric generating plant. His report, to date, is recorded in photos, audio, and written narrative in “Clean Coal TVA Ash Spill”.
“For the past five years much of my work has focused around the social cost of producing energy in the USA” says Tapp in the introduction to this compelling multimedia presentation, “I continue to work in the Four Corners area of the Southwest on the Navajo Nation striving to photograph the true ‘cost’ of using coal for the production of electricity. An ongoing project, Question of Power, shows the human condition as we mine, burn, and dispose of combustion waste using coal in the creation of electricity.
Carlan shares his techniques for multimedia storytelling with students in his New Media Photo Narrative workshop, August 23 – 29.