Connecting the Dots: For a Just Transition
Collection
Call Number: WA Photos Folio 221
Scope and Contents
Inkjet prints of photographic images created by Will Wilson for his series, Connecting the Dots: For a Just Transition, 2019-2021.
In an artist's statement for the series, Wilson states that it "intends to shape a platform for voices of resilience, Indigenous knowledge and restorative systems of remediation while bearing witness to a history of environmental damage and communal loss on the Navajo Nation." Locations for the images are chiefly at Dinétah (Diné for "among the people"), the ancestral homelands of the Diné at northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, and northeastern Arizona, as well as the Navajo Indian Reservation within it. Wilson continues in his statment that the project presents "a photographic survey of the over 500 Abandoned Uranium Mines (AUMs) located on the Navajo Nation. These AUMs are physical manifestations of a complex and traumatic history that has poisoned the land and endangered a people," and that the investigation focuses "on the toxic legacy of uranium extraction and processing on Dinétah that continues to threaten the health of our people and land." He concludes that by "bearing witness to these sites, and the front-line communities affected by them, the project will serve as a catalyst for designing innovative solutions that refocus our understanding of what remediation can be."
Sites identified in the images include sites in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Sites at Arizona include abandoned mines at Cameron, including the Section 9 Lease Mines on Babbitt Ranches property near the Little Colorado River as well as the disposal cell site in Tuba City related to a mill operated by the Rare Metals Corporation of America.
Sites at New Mexico include abandoned mines and disposal sites at Ambrosia and Shiprock as well as an uranium mill operated by the United Nuclear Corporation at Church Rock mill and the location of the large accidental release of radioactive material in July 1979.
Sites at Utah include views of uranium disposal cells at Mexican Hat.
Titled, dated, and signed by the photographer on versos. Inscriptions on versos of many prints provide contextual information about the images.
In an artist's statement for the series, Wilson states that it "intends to shape a platform for voices of resilience, Indigenous knowledge and restorative systems of remediation while bearing witness to a history of environmental damage and communal loss on the Navajo Nation." Locations for the images are chiefly at Dinétah (Diné for "among the people"), the ancestral homelands of the Diné at northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, and northeastern Arizona, as well as the Navajo Indian Reservation within it. Wilson continues in his statment that the project presents "a photographic survey of the over 500 Abandoned Uranium Mines (AUMs) located on the Navajo Nation. These AUMs are physical manifestations of a complex and traumatic history that has poisoned the land and endangered a people," and that the investigation focuses "on the toxic legacy of uranium extraction and processing on Dinétah that continues to threaten the health of our people and land." He concludes that by "bearing witness to these sites, and the front-line communities affected by them, the project will serve as a catalyst for designing innovative solutions that refocus our understanding of what remediation can be."
Sites identified in the images include sites in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Sites at Arizona include abandoned mines at Cameron, including the Section 9 Lease Mines on Babbitt Ranches property near the Little Colorado River as well as the disposal cell site in Tuba City related to a mill operated by the Rare Metals Corporation of America.
Sites at New Mexico include abandoned mines and disposal sites at Ambrosia and Shiprock as well as an uranium mill operated by the United Nuclear Corporation at Church Rock mill and the location of the large accidental release of radioactive material in July 1979.
Sites at Utah include views of uranium disposal cells at Mexican Hat.
Titled, dated, and signed by the photographer on versos. Inscriptions on versos of many prints provide contextual information about the images.
Dates
- 2019-2021
Creator
- Wilson, Will, 1969- (Photographer)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Connecting the Dots: For a Just Transition is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Will Wilson on the Frederick W. and Carrie S. Beinecke Fund for Western Americana, 2021.
Arrangement
Organized into three series: I. Arizona, 2019-2021. II. New Mexico, 2019-2021. III. Utah, 2019-2020.
Extent
13.5 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Persistent URL
Overview
Inkjet prints of photographic images created by Will Wilson for his series, Connecting the Dots: For a Just Transition, 2019-2021.
In an artist's statement for the series, Wilson writes that it "intends to shape a platform for voices of resilience, Indigenous knowledge and restorative systems of remediation while bearing witness to a history of environmental damage and communal loss on the Navajo Nation."
In an artist's statement for the series, Wilson writes that it "intends to shape a platform for voices of resilience, Indigenous knowledge and restorative systems of remediation while bearing witness to a history of environmental damage and communal loss on the Navajo Nation."
Will Wilson (born 1969)
Will Wilson is a Diné photographer. He studied photography at Oberlin College (Bachelor of Arts, Studio Art and Art History, 1993) and the University of New Mexico (Master of Fine Arts in Photography, 2002). Since 2014, Wilson has supervised the photography program in the School of Arts, Design and Media Arts at Santa Fe Community College, New Mexico.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, as well as more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This guide derives from a detailed examination of each print. Titles transcribed from inscriptions on prints and corrected in notes when necessary. Dates in the collection reflect the date of image capture.
This guide derives from a detailed examination of each print. Titles transcribed from inscriptions on prints and corrected in notes when necessary. Dates in the collection reflect the date of image capture.
- Aerial photographs
- Arizona -- Pictorial works
- Indians of North America -- Southwest, New -- Pictorial works
- Inkjet prints
- Navajo Indian Reservation -- Pictorial works
- Navajo Indians -- Pictorial works
- New Mexico -- Pictorial works
- Photographs
- Photography, Artistic
- Pollution in art -- Pictorial works
- Radioactive pollution -- Navajo Indian Reservation -- Pictorial works
- Uranium mines and mining -- Navajo Indian Reservation -- Pictorial works
- Utah -- Pictorial works
- Title
- Guide to the Connecting the Dots: For a Just Transition
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Matthew Daniel Mason
- Date
- November 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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