Raw File Exposing the Wired World, One Photo at a Time

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The Cerro Prieto geothermal power plant in Sonora, Mexico allegedly pollutes a large swath of the Colorado River in Mexico. Downstream many people rely on the water to provide fish and water for agriculture, while to the north, the United States purchases a large percentage of the power created by the plant. Photo: Courtesy of Brian L. Frank/Redux

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Photographers are finding many unconventional homes for their work these days, but Brian Frank was especially surprised when the Library of Congress wanted to purchase some of his photos that other media outlets had passed on.

“One of the first things I thought about was that I’d be part of a collection with the great FSA photographers,” says Frank, a San Francisco photojournalist. “The works of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange have inspired me since my time in school.”

Renowned for its holdings of Depression-era photographs by the Farm Security Administration, photojournalism archives and government documents, the Library of Congress’ Prints & Photographs Division is the largest public collection of its kind in the United States. The responsibilities of the Library of Congress are not limited to conserving, curating and digitizing its historical holdings, however. The Prints & Photographs Division is actively identifying historical gaps, sourcing work and buying prints from photographers. With over 14 million items in the stacks it is not the typical client.

In July, the Library of Congress bought six prints by Frank from his photo essay Downstream: The Death of the Colorado. The work documents overpopulation, pollution and over-damning in the American Southwest and the Northern Baja and Sonora regions of Mexico. Frank says he accepted “a little less than market” because of the honor of being included in the archive.

“Much of our collection,” says Beverly Brannan, curator of photographs at the Library of Congress, “follows the anthropological lines laid out by the FSA photographs: man’s relationships with the land, agriculture, water use, how people celebrate seasons and community, what music they make. Brian’s images add to our collection of images about water resources.”

The acquisition is more remarkable given mainstream media’s relative lack of interest. Frank says his representation at Redux Pictures has been pushing the project hard, but that it may require up to 20 pages. The work was published online but it has not been in print.

Brannan and her three colleagues in charge of photographs are constantly identifying gaps in the collection, and each is responsible for one of four broadly defined geographical divisions. Brannan’s mandate covers Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of the world, to which Frank’s work contributes.

“We keep our eyes on newspapers, magazines and TV,” says Brannan. “We receive recommendations from colleagues. Photo dealers will get in touch.” She found Frank’s work through a New York gallery specializing in social documentary photography.

Frank began the project in 2007 after volunteering with Project Luz, a community workshop teaching photography to the children of San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, just south of the California border.

“On your way to San Luis you cross a dry river where the Colorado used to run. I started wondering what would it be like if the river was still there,” says Frank. “Pressures on water resources have become more drastic in the past decade. The Río Colorado doesn’t even make it to the ocean. Laws regulate the amount of water Mexican Farmers get. The U.S. has used more and more water over the years. The Mexico government must buy water and even then it goes to the big farms.”

The problems for Mexican farmers began as far back as 1942 when the All-American Canal went into operation diverting – just miles north of the U.S./Mexico border – the waters of the Colorado River eastward for irrigation and to support California’s growing desert cities. Today, aquifers are dropping and wells, once a reliable source of water for Mexican farmers, are drying up.

Frank is at pains to emphasize the suffering on both sides of the border. “This isn’t just about tensions between the United States and Mexico. There is a lot of poverty in the U.S. too,” he says.

In addition to images of agriculture, Downstream: The Death of the Colorado depicts cooling towers, suburban paddling pools and Las Vegas fountains – each playing its part in the water cycles of the region.

“Brian’s pictures have a narrative quality,” says Brannan. “Each picture can stand on its own, but put together they tell a story. [A good photograph] is one that doesn’t rely on a caption to tell the story.”

For other documentary photographers hoping to one day be approached by the Library of Congress, Brannan says, “We’re not looking exclusively for big names. We’re looking for subject matter. If a photograph tells the story in a compelling way, we must take it into consideration.”

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Frank was awarded the 2010 Global Vision Award by POYi for Downstream, The Death of the Colorado and won the 2009 NPPA Domestic News Picture Story for La Guerra Mexicana. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The San Francisco Chronicle, and his work has appeared in Esquire, Newsweek, Time, Photo District News, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, Global Post, and wire services. Brian talks about his photography here. He is a member of Razon collective.