The image is powerful, but it is the caption which helps to extend its ethnographic insight, relating to toxic histories of colonialism as well as issues of environmental activism and justice. The image helps to convey "the grappling with toxicity that is not molecular," materializing Pm2.5 in its connection with the body.
This visualization advances ethnographic insight by bringing together questions of the materiality of post-coloniality with questions of air toxicity impacted by significant cultural events such as Diwali. It raises important considerations about ‘non-molecular’ toxics and the sentiment that they are difficult to trace, as they are always on the move. By publically illustrating the density of trapped PM 2.5 particles over a relatively short period of time, it creates a sort of monument of atmosphere which stands in contrast to the colonial war monument in the background of the image.