非常感谢Mitch Epstein将英文介绍和项目图片授权gooood发行。更多请至：Mitch Epstein on gooood

Appreciation towards Mitch Epstein for providing the following description:
http://www.prixpictet.com/2010/view/1022/11033
http://whatisamericanpower.com/

今年的Prix Pictet摄影大奖作品，意义深刻。增长不在意味着进步，而是意味着自我毁灭？最后还是充满希望。（作品见文字后）

Mitch Epstein’s Haunting Photos of “American Power” Win the Prix Pictet
© Black River Productions, Ltd. / Mitch Epstein.
Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.
Used with permission. All rights reserved.

In 2003, I was asked to photograph the erasure of a small town in Ohio. In Cheshire, houses were being razed by the hour and streets were nearly emptied of human life. American Electric Power, one of the world’s largest utility companies, had bought out the town and instituted a gag order, after increasing complaints that AEP’s plant had contaminated the health of Cheshire’s citizens. I was not the same after this trip. The cost of growth, with its implicit energy demands, had become terrifyingly vivid. I had seen first-hand the grave results of fossil fuel production on human life and our ecosystem. To further examine the role of energy in the United States, I embarked on a five-year-long, twenty-five-state project called American Power. I photographed a consumerist society inured to the consequences of unbridled consumption. Many living in the shadows of power plants despaired their polluted water and air, but did not have the economic resources to relocate. Growth no longer meant progress, but self-destruction.

I wanted to photograph the dangerous trinity of corporate power, consumerist advertising, and citizens who believe the old American dream that improving your lot means having more and using more. American Power is an active response to the American Dream gone haywire. My project focuses on the United States not only because I am American; but because the U.S. has exported its model of unrestricted growth around the world in the form of mass consumerism, corporatism, and sprawl. We need to now export a revised model of growth, a revised American Dream. I included pictures in American Power of renewable energy–wind, biotech, solar–to show that a healthier, more economical and compassionate way of life is possible. American Power bears witness to the cost of growth; and it asks viewers to consider the landscape they have created–and take responsibility for it.

After the project was finished, exhibited, and published as a book, I looked for a way to disseminate this work beyond the art world. I created an interactive public art project with my wife, writer Susan Bell, that used billboards in Ohio and a website (whatisamericanpower.com) to share American Power more widely.

2003年的时候，我被派到俄亥俄的一个小镇进行拍摄。美国能源公司，世界上最大的公共事业公司之一，将这个小镇收购了了，这里的许多房屋被夷为平地，街道上空空如也，工厂的污染影响到居民的健康，因此得到了众多的投诉。人类对能源的需求以对生态系统造成了严重的破坏，随后五年，我踏上了“美国电力”这个项目的探访之路。在一个消费社会的肆无忌惮的消费阴影背后，有着绝望的生活，被污染的水和空气，许多人们没有经济实力进行搬迁。增长不在意味着进步，而是意味着自我毁灭。

美国梦的错觉在于相信你自己会拥有越来越多，而我通过拍摄企业，消费广告，人们的危险这三方面来揭示真实。美国梦或许破灭。这些内容集中在美国，不仅仅因为我是美国人，更是因为美国模式已经蔓延世界。现在需要新的模式，所以也有可再生能源发电的图片：风能，生物技术，太阳能，这意味着一个健康，经济的生活前景。美国电力在成长的同时，也要担负起相应的责任。

该项目完成以后进行展览并出版成书，我找到了一种传播方式，这已经超越了艺术的范畴。我和我的妻子共同创建了一个网站，分享美国电力这个公共艺术项目。网站：http://whatisamericanpower.com/

阿莫斯煤电厂，雷蒙德市，2004年西弗吉尼亚州
Amos Coal Power Plant, Raymond City, West Virginia 2004
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2004
Raymond City, West Virginia

加文煤电厂，柴郡，2003年美国俄亥俄州
Gavin Coal Power Plant, Cheshire, Ohio 2003
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2003
Cheshire, Ohio

卡森的BP炼油厂，加州 2007年
BP Carson Refinery, California 2007
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2007
Carson, California

比洛克西，密西西比州 2005
Biloxi, Mississippi 2005
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2005
Biloxi, Mississippi

米德湖和胡佛水坝，内华达州/亚利桑那州2007
Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Nevada/Arizona 2007
Series: American Power
chromogenic print
178 x 228
2007
Lake Mead, Nevada/Arizona

爱荷华州80 Truckstop，沃尔科特，爱荷华州2008年
Iowa 80 Truckstop, Walcott, Iowa 2008
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2008
Walcott, Iowa

信号山，长滩，加州2007年
Signal Hill, Long Beach, California 2007
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2007
Long Beach, California

华威海洋石油平台，多芬岛，2005年阿拉巴马州
Ocean Warwick Oil Platform, Dauphin Island, Alabama 2005
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2005
Dauphin Island, Alabama

内华达州拉斯维加斯2007年
Las Vegas, Nevada 2007
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2007
Las Vegas, Nevada

世纪风项目，Blairsburg，爱荷华州2008年
Century Wind Project, Blairsburg, Iowa 2008
Series: American Power
Chromogenic print
178 x 228
2008
Blairsburg, Iowa

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http://www.prixpictet.com/2010/view/1022/11033

http://whatisamericanpower.com/

更多请至：Mitch Epstein on gooood

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Mitch Epstein’s Haunting Photos of “American Power” Win the Prix Pictet