POWER
Photographs by Tammy Cromer-Campbell
with a selection from
The Gregg County Historical Museum Archive
“As a photographer I feel a responsibility to go beyond mere documentation and presentation to
using my talents and skills to convey messages that need to be heard.”-- Tammy Cromer-Campbell, 2008
Focusing on both contemporary and historical providers of power in Texas, POWER includes Cromer-Campbell’s images of Texas steam electric stations (some of the largest in the country); the lignite mines that fuel them; Houston's Ship Channel (Texas’s largest clusters of refineries, with low-income housing nestled around them), the Texas Panhandle Wind Farm and select images from the Gregg County Historical Museum's archive.
Cromer-Campbell began her visual investigation culminating to POWER in 2007. Since then, the issues surrounding our country’s need to diversify its power sources in socially and economically acceptable ways
have taken center stage, especially with the Presidential election pending in January 2009. “My wish is that the materials in POWER will encourage viewers to reflect on current sources of power, future possibilities, and
the need for informed choices.” The images in the show are both color and black and white. To capture the scope and awesome quality of her subjects, she worked with a Nikon digital camera. For intimate and dramatic scenes, she chose the low-tech Holga toy camera. To broaden the context of the coverage of Texas power, Cromer-Campbell includes a fascinating selection of 1930s historic oil field photographs from the archives of the Gregg County Historical Museum. Many of the archival images displayed are those Cromer-Campbell made from scans of the originl 8x10 glass plate negatives.
The educational thrust of POWER is a continuation of Cromer-Campbell’s involvement with social issues and the storytelling power of photography. Her first book, Fruit of the Orchard/Environmental Justice in East Texas (2006), was widely acclaimed for its poignantly honest depiction of the human tragedies that befell the citizenry of Winona, Texas, who lived downwind of a toxic-waste injection-well facility built in 1982. At her March 2008 book signing in Denver at the National Society for Photographic Education, she signed alongside acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, who recently published his own book of photographs of mines, quarries, oil fields, and more throughout the world. With POWER, Cromer-Campbell adroitly scrutinizes similar subjects in the home state of current President George Bush, a region that can be seen as a microcosm facing what Burtynsky has called “the dilemma of our modern existence. . . a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear.” Texas, and all of the United States, need to become more independent in meeting current and projected power needs. The question is, how? POWER offers a stimulating entrée into this discussion.
The gallery is open Monday – Friday, 11am – 6pm and by appointment. TCC PHOTO | GALLERY is located at 207 N. Center St. and visit the online gallery at http://www.tccphotogallery.com.
Additional Information:
Wildorado Wind Project
The Wildorado Wind Project http://www.edison.com/investors/ir_news.asp?id=6146, 161-megawatt (MW)
“The Wildorado project will provide Texas with a valuable new source of environmentally friendly electricity. In this time of rising energy costs, it is especially important that we develop both new capacity and more diversity in our energy supply.” said Ted Craver, chief executive officer of Edison Mission Group.
• located on approximately 16,000 acres on the Binford Ranch
• generates 161-megawatt (MW)
• 70 turbines that generate 2.3 MW of electricity at peak wind speeds
Houston's Ship Channel
The Dallas Morning News reported, "The Houston's Ship Channel is the largest concentration of petrochemical plants in the USA... A 2007 study by the University of Texas School of Public Health showed that children living within two miles of the heavily industrialized Houston Ship Channel have a 56 percent greater risk of contracting acute lymphocytes leukemia than children living farther away." Houston's Mayor Bill White is one of our modern day heroes. He is trying to reduce air toxic emissions in Houston. "Nobody should have the right to chemically alter air they don't own, breathed by other people, in a way that poses significant health risks," said Mr. White, a Democrat. http://tinyurl.com/5plnaz
Martin Lake Steam Electric Station
Unit 1 of the Martin Lake Steam Electric Station began operation in 1977, unit 2 became operational in 1978 and the last unit, unit3, became operational in 1979. Luminant made 200 acres available to the state of Texas for creation of the Martin Creek Lake State Park, which opened in 1976. An electric-powered train is used to transport lignite to the plant from outlying mining areas. The plant also receives rail shipments of coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin, to supplement and extend the life of the Texas Lignite reserves. Martin Lake is a part of Luminant, formerly TXU.
• generates 2,250 MW
• payroll for Luminant's 3 mines in NE Texas and Martin Lake Power plant is $134,545,129
• property Taxes Paid: $17,375,440
• type of fuel: Lignite and Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal
• the generated electricity is for the residents of Dallas, TX
• #1 mercury emitter in the USA in 2006 *
• emitted 1705 lbs of mercury (Hg) *
• emitted 21,301,393.26 tons CO2 *
Luminant's Oak Hill Mine
Hwy 322 Coal strip mine is apart of the Gulf Coast lignite seam that has the largest quantities of mercury on the continent. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1678227
• located in Gregg County and is apart of Luminant's Oak Hill Mines and is burned by
Marin Lake Power Plant
• to date Luminant has mined 25,269 acres and has reclaimed 1,430 in 2007
• the Railroad Commission of Texas selected Luminant as the winner of the 2008 Texas Reclamation Award.
H.W. Pirkey Power Plant
Pirkey Power Plant located on Brandy Branch Reservoir, a community fishing lake. No fishing advisories are posted on the lake.
• located in Hallsville, Texas
• online in 1982
• one unit, stack height: 525 ft generating 675 Megawatts.
• 110 employees
• annual payroll: $7.1 million
• annual taxes (real estate, personal property): $3,300,00
• the generated electricity is the Longview/Hallsville area.
• pirkey # 1 in mercury emissions per kilowatt-hour
• emitted 1142 lbs mercury (Hg)
• average annual lignite use: 3.85 million tons
Gregg County Historic Oil Fields
In 1931, the Gregg County Oil Fields produced 107,727,912 barrels of oil for a daily average of 295,145 barrels. When "Dad" Joiner's well (1st well in Gregg County) was brought in, oil was $1.10 a barrel. One year later it was 25 cents a barrel. http://www.txgenes.com/TxGregg/OilField.html
Related Information
On April 24, 2008, The Science Daily reported that "the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio released a report that shows a statistically significant link between pounds of industrial release of mercury and increased autism rates. It also shows for the first time_ in scientific literature―a statistically significant association between autism risk and distance from the mercury." http://tinyurl.com/6ao84s
According to the Scientific American, "coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste."
1/3 teaspoon or 1 gram of mercury contaminates 20 acres of lake.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Tammy Cromer-Campbell is an award winning American photographer best known for her work as a social documentary photographer and speaker. Cromer-Campbell received her Associates of Applied Arts degree in commercial photography from Kilgore College, Kilgore, Texas under the direction of O. Rufus Lovett. She continued her education by taking workshops from the masters in photography, such as Arnold Newman, Ruth Bernhard, Michael Kenna, Keith Carter, John Sexton, and others.
In 2006, the University of North Texas Press published her first book, Fruit of the Orchard / Environmental Justice in East Texas. The book received favorable reviews from the Dallas Morning News, Austin American Statesman, PhotoTechniques Magazine, CHOICE, Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, and others. Fruit of the Orchard received an honorable mention for documentary books in the International PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris. She has received many honors and awards including Blue Earth Alliance’s first ever cash grant, in 1999, for Fruit of the Orchard. Cromer-Campbell’s work has been published in many publications including cover stories for Camera Arts Magazine, Houston Chronicle’s Texas Magazine numerous times, and many others fine publications.
Cromer-Campbell is Vice President Statewide on the Executive Board for the Texas Photographic Society. She served as an Image-maker presenter at the Society for Photographic Educators National Convention, Denver, Colorado in March of 2008. Her first film, Environmental Justice in the USA was included in the Short Films by Texas Filmmakers organized by Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Brown Auditorium in April 2008. Her work is included in public and private collections internationally such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museet for Fotocunst, Belgium, and others.
In 2000, Cromer-Campbell, co-founded Working Effectively for Clean Air Now (WECAN) to educate her community on local air quality issues and continues to work with environmental groups across the country.
She photographs from her studio in downtown Longview, Texas and lives with her husband Scott, also a photographer.
