That toxic places can refer to an absence of something as well as a presence of something.
The image is found. It portrays order and sorting. Categorisation of history. It is also almost timeless within about a 40 year boundary - was this a choice?
This visualization is missing a useful caption - so the main way this could be elaborated on would be to include more information! Much of the text from the introduction to the photo essay could be used to explain why the author chose to show a found picture of an archive room. Where is the archive room? Was it not possible for the author to photograph it herself? Why use a found picture - does this tell us anymore about the toxicity of the place and how it is accessed? What does the location have to do with the his/story being described? Why is this important - without it, the photo might just be any old archive anywhere. It could in fact be of interest as it is an archive that predominantly addresses this imbalance of histories and voices.
Is shows that toxic places are not necessarily contaminated by a physical chemical - but can be toxic because of the absence of something (in this case representation) as well as the presence of something.