The source of the image is not clear, but it might be a photograph taken by the ethnographer. It depicts a sheet of red paper, pasted onto a pole. The photo is taken in a way that the main text is visible, but the background is out of scope. Since it was likely taken at night, it made me imagine an active red light red-light district around (maybe it's just the red paper...). Or maybe there is nothing special around, because it's a prostitution free zone. Either way, the image has a certain allure, forcing the viewer to imagine what the surroundings look like.
The rather sharp flash that illuminates the sheet, together with the authoritative tone of the rules reminded me of a police interrogation, or a stop and frisk of a subject during the night, where officers purposefully blind and irritate their subject with flashlights for intimidation. There might be more room to play with that effect in your image.
The photograph was taken by the ethnographer during a field visit. What struck me was the play with light, creating a contrast between powerplant, fishermen and their catch. I wondered whether it was a phone snapshot or more intentionally composed photograph, or both, but it certainly seemed very artistic to me (in all the good ways!). Attention is focused on the fishermen, going about their work in an almost clandestine way. Might be the headlamps and their hunched posture, my initial thought that the fishing is illegal/informal, or at least not encouraged by whoever runs the power plant.
I understand this image is part of a bigger project, and it really works for introducing the global scale of the petrochemical activities.
The images are mostly found images. Image 2 is an illustration of Los Angeles, with Biddy Mason's face superimposed over a large portion of the city. I am particularly intriguied by the use of scale here, and the difference between mediums. They underline your argument that our imagination of early Los Angeles is partly an imaginary, given that historical archives have erased histories such as Biddy's.
Personally, I like the integration of comical humor in the form of illustration when addressing "gruesome" or difficult matters. The analogy visualized in the progression images between [re]productivity and alcoholism raises a critical question on the heteronormative message implied. It makes me think of the rhetoric used by Progressives in the late-nineteenth-century pertaining to alcoholism, violence, and diminishing productivity in the United States, culminating in the Volstead Act of 1919 which ushered the Prohibition Era.
The most appealing aspect of the image is related to its aesthetic. By using a color gradient that increases in darkness as the percentage of the Non-Hispanic White population decreases, it compellingly sends out two critical messages. The explicit conclusion shows a causal link between racialized groups and higher concentrations of toxic landscapes. More, implicitly is the near absence of toxic sites in predominantly white geographies which, mapped out as such, works to reinforce the notion of whiteness as a de-racialized category.
Assuming it is created by the ethnographer, it is landscape image from the field site. The silhoutte nature of the image creates a very powerful focus to the image and perfectly highlights the themes illustrated in the caption.
The image was made by the author and is based on NGO-generated data of toxic hotspots in Delhi overlaid with data from a scientific paper, with added political borders. This composition draws attention to toxic clusters near these political borders, illustrating the point that pollution is a social justice issue. The origin of the banner on the left is unclear to me.
The image is a picture taken during ethnographic fieldwork by the author. The composition is really intereting - the figure scooping algae from the river divides the picture in two, with the polluted shore below and the algae above. One can see two people taking pictures through two shadows reflected in the river, and this seems to suggest the presence of the ethnographer in a way. The picture is taken from above, which anonimyses the figure and places the algal blooms as the centre of attention.