A Chimney-Shadowed Sky: Unearthing Saint John's Gritty Reality
Life in a Small Canadian Town Homes in the Remnants of the Cigarette Factory Smokestacks - Small-Town Existence beneath Smokestacks: Residential Living Surrounded by Canada's Cloud Factories
Written by Rune Weichert
Growing up, Chris Donovan gazed at the sky above his hometown, Saint John, New Brunswick, wondering if the endless plume of smoke belching from the factories could possibly make clouds. His father, gruffly, retorted, "Son, they don't make clouds; they make money."
This quip encapsulates life in Saint John, a city that, at first glance, seems an amalgamation of oil refineries, towering tycoons, and navigable poverty. Home to the country's largest oil refinery and one of the country's wealthiest families, yet also harboring one of the poorest neighborhoods, with a shocking child poverty rate of around 50%.
Chris Donovan is a documentary photographer, artist, and educator based in Saint John. He precariously balanced his footing between the salty, though questionable, waters of local politics, as a photographer for the "Telegraph-Journal" newspaper - a read he'd devoured since his childhood days. Today, he devotes himself to long-term photographic projects that delve deep into class and environmental injustices. "Cloud Factory" being his latest exploration, probing the inherent flaws in a city where the billionaire Irving family casts an omnipresent shadow.
The Irving Dynasty: Gathering Stranglehold over Saint John
The Irving family has nurtured a ruthless monopoly over Saint John's economy, owning English-language newspapers until 2022, and effectively muzzling the community's voice for decades. Under this regime of censorship, the oil industry relished its power unchallenged. Donovan, too, felt the cold twist of their iron grip at his newspaper, then published by Brunswick News Inc. - a company that is, of course, owned by the Irvings.
Lisa Crandall and her family reside within the Bayside neighborhood, a stone's throw from the refinery. In 2018 alone, they bore the brunt of a butane leak, approximately 30,000 liters, from a nearby pipeline. Over a traumatic 17-hour period, the deadly substance oozed its way into their neighborhood. Public outcry followed the incident, yet Irving Oil allegedly compensated affected houses for sums hovering anywhere between $80,000 and $110,000. Lisa's house, however, was not among them. Ever since, her family remains trapped - in fear, yet cannot afford to escape.
In conversations with urban dwellers entwined in the refinery's tangled grip, Donovan uncovered a tangible culture of fear. A culture that cripples the predominantly impoverished populace, spawning a lingering dread that speaks volumes, if only the Irving dynasty would care to listen.
"Cloud Factory": A Visceral Protest and Heartfelt Ode
Donovan embarked on his photographic journey around Saint John in 2014, intending to uncover the polarizing dynamics between the haves and have-nots, only to find himself gradually drawn into the intricate web of environmental classism and ecological injustice. "Cloud Factory," he asserts, is as much a battle cry as it is a tender love letter to the city he holds dear, irrespective of its struggles.
"The notion of a city that continues to grapple with pervasive poverty, intertwined with an oppressive oil industry, is a heavy weight that I have grown to carry," Donovan confides. "Yet through documenting environmental injustice and reflecting upon my own childhood, I delve into the questionable formation of identity in a city desperately clinging to a detrimental industry for survival."
Simultaneously, "Cloud Factory" serves as a pointed indictment of the Irving conglomerate's insidious grip over the community, shed light on the suppressed environmental reporting that has kept Saint John shackled for years, and perhaps, ultimately, call for a desperate wake-up call, lest the city surrenders its spark to the relentless advance of industrialization.
- In the documentary photography series titled "Cloud Factory," Chris Donovan investigates the flaws in Saint John's economy, where the wealth management of the Irving family casts a daunting shadow over the community policy, employment policy, and environmental-science sectors.
- The oil-and-gas industry, under the stranglehold of the Irving dynasty, has dominated Saint John's landscape and economy, silencing industry critics and environmental journalists through their monopoly over the English-language newspapers.
- While science and finance play significant roles in the city's economy, the oil industry's impact on the environment and its effects on the working class have led to concerns about energy consumption, class, and environmental injustices within the community.
- Chris Donovan's artistic works showcase the vibrant yet struggling character of Saint John, serving as a reflection of the city's tumultuous relationship with industry, wealth-management, and the lived experiences of marginalized families, such as the Crandalls in the Bayside neighborhood.
