The image is grotesque and funny. I don't know how to enrich it further. I would be curious to see the image in its context as a piece of public or gallery art, to see it seen by other viewers. But as presented I think it is an image rich in ethnographic import.
I think including more context about policing in Washington DC would help enrich the power of the image, as well as the ethnographer's take on the image aside from the quotes listed by other authors. Some background on the ethnographer's overall project would also be helpful for understanding where this image fits within the overall argument.
Although at first sight, the image shows a direct impact on nature, it would be helpful to allocate three or four small photos at one side about plastics or toxic detriments on the coastline. This can be helpful to trace the line with the following photos about plastic toxicity.
No. Neither for Image #1 or Image #2. I find both these images thought-provoking and challenging. They are unsettling in the best critical sense.
I would suggest working on a way to draw into the image a trigger for generating a reflection about toxicity and how some communities are constructed as 'toxic communities' or populations as 'pollutants'. Dorceta Taylor's work might be worth using as a source of inspiration? Or Mary Douglas's work. I don't mean to be negative but I connections vague here.
If the researcher could work through the politics of plastic and its incongruous presence in a protected mangrove forest, especially in its almost comfortable presence in these spaces, would help the viewer engage with the photograph further.
One way to enrich this image might be to surround the initial map with other aerial images which represent sites from within the different TRI clusters, or locations of the emissions of particular air toxics, so that the harmful qualities of industrialization can be visualized.
Another possibility might be to compare this map with a more recent map, and pinpoint areas of recent deindustrialization, in order to see if it has a relationship with ongoing gentrification?
A third possibility would be to integrate “illegal” toxic emissions in some format—either through highlighting several industries which might get exemptions from the TRI, or marking other forms of toxic waste sites (continuing from image 1).
This image can be enriched by centering the left pair of lungs so it is cropped slightly more symmetrically to the ones on the right, as this will make it even more apparent to the viewer that both images are of the same pair of lungs. While the link to the time lapse video is very powerful, a second possibility would be to include other time points, such as after two weeks, or a month, in order to show the gradual blackening over time. Other options might be to include local readings of PM 2.5, thereby contrasting the visual with the “science” of air toxicity.
This image might be enriched by adding a comparison with the original Buick City, or some form of juxtaposition of the current site and what used to be on the site. An option might be to include images of remediation testing which is periodically undergone on brownfield sites, or to include aerial images of the site immediately after Buick City was removed, when the presence of particular contaminants might have been most obvious on the surface.
I don't know about enriching this image. It is an arresting image on its own. I would, however, love to see more context, a wider-shot, if it is a documentary shot. If not, I would also be interested in a side-by-side headshot of this (military) man in work clothes or uniform.