GowanusCanal.US – Mark D Phillips photographs document the last 35 years along the Gowanus Canal, declared a Superfund site in 2010 containing the dirtiest water in the United States.

Gowanus Canal 2023

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The Gowanus canal - A LONG TERM Photographic DOCUMENTARY PROJECT

Mark D Phillips first discovered the fetid, abandoned waterway in the heart of Brooklyn in 1989. His photographs document a unique urban landscape surrounding the 1.8 mile long canal containing the dirtiest water in the United States.

Today’s Gowanus Canal is a developers dream with high rise apartment buildings sprouting like weeds along its shoreline. But there are advocates fighting to keep access to this jewel in Brooklyn.

GOWANUScanal.us store

Our 2025 ABSTRACTS GOWANUS CANAL calendar is now available. The filth of the waterway created beautiful mosaics in the photographs by Mark D Phillips. A great gift for the holidays for anyone interested in the cleanup of Brooklyn’s notorious Superfund site.

CALENDARS * FINE ART IMAGES • COLLECTIBLES • ÇLOTHING

A tour boat comes up the Gowanus Canal approaching the Carroll Street bridge in 1998. ©Mark D Phillips

ISBRANDTSEN was the largest maritime shipping company from the United States to the Mediterranean from the 1950s to the 1970s. When the company filed for bankruptcy in the 1980s, they abandoned their main shipping pier in Gowanus Bay. ©Mark D Phillips

End Times, New Construction at the Gowanus Canal is turning it into downtown Brooklyn. ©Mark D Phillips

Leonard Thomas, the Chicken Man of the Gowanus Canal

As of November 2020, the Superfund cleanup was fully underway and recreational boating was banned. ©Mark D Phillips

Gowanus Canal Websites by Mark D Phillips

MarkDPhillips.com

All the artwork available for high quality printing and exhibits…..

SouthBrooklyn.com

The publishing site for Mark D Phillips showing his love of Brooklyn and its changing landscape.

SBI.SmugMug.com

The stock photography site of Mark D Phillips

From the blog

Creatures of the Canal

The inaugural Gowanus Art Parade crosses the Union Street Bridge on June 1, 2024, with a changing landscape along the shores of the canal. As hundreds of revelers cross the Union Street bridge, the old and the new Gowanus are in sharp contrast. All eyes are on the Gowanus Canal and its environs as it undergoes an upgrade from the 19th century to the 22nd century.

Field of Dreams: New bulkheads are constructed along the shore at the head of the Gowanus Canal beyond the Union Street bridge in July 2020. ©Mark D Phillips

EPA Inspector General Sean W. O’Donnell issued a report this morning outlining how oversight failures by EPA Region 2 and willful obstruction by the City of New York have led to soaring costs and increased health risks in Gowanus.

Alex Figliola building gone from Gowanus Canal. ©Mark D Phillips

I have expected to say this for at least a decade, and now, post COVID, it is finally here. The Gowanus I photographed for thirty years is officially dead, and the new Gowanus is here to stay. And it’s not my generations Gowanus by any stretch of the imagination. This Gowanus will be enveloped with people and buildings to resemble the riverwalk in Providence, RI, or San Antonio, TX. The wild spirit that existed on…