i was taking in this seemingly picturesque scene of a nice house with a winding driveway surrounded by rolling lawns, and as my eyes scanned the image only then did i notice the ominous clouds of pollution from a factory in the distance. this is the dark undercurrent that runs through daniel shea‘s ongoing photographic series called plume:
plume is a photographic exploration of southeast ohio and its unusually dense concentration of coal-fired power plants. the project serves as a follow-up to the work i made in 2007 in appalachia, removing mountains, which focused on mountaintop removal, a particularly pervasive form of coal mining. plume follows this coal up river to ohio, where it is being burned to generate electricity.
all images: daniel shea