As a native of Los Angeles, I have witnessed the smog worsen over the years. These photographs serve to complicate and add nuance to how people have conceptualized smog as a problem in LA. In the first picture, we are able to see and understand how smog can interupt the daily lives of LA natives as it seems like the person in the image is affected by the smog. The other two images also highlight the way that smog has increased in LA, but you can also see more buildings and I wonder how the expansion of infrastructure in downtown LA has contributed to the smog in LA and how it has interrupted the ability to build public transportation in a way that does not destroy marginalized communities (e.g. the current situation with Metro in the Crenshaw area that has contributed to the displacement of Black people and Black organizing as well as contributed to gentrification). Additonally, the building of corporations have not been addressed in discussions about smog and I wonder how your visualizations can contribute to those discussions at a more nuanced level. For example the exapansions of downtown LA as a business hub has been considered to have a positive economic impact, but it has contributed to the traffic and amount of parking lots and condos that have had to be built to accomodate employees, while simultanenously contributing to the toxicity that homeless people deal a couple of blocks away from the financial district.
