Abstracts of the Gowanus Canal 2025 Calendar

Description

For over thirty years, Mark D Phillips has documented the historic Gowanus Canal and the surrounding urban environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency designated the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site on March 2, 2010, which should have pumped in enough federal dollars to clean the fetid waterway. The area seemed to be on the verge, with real-estate speculation at a fever pitch, and multimillion-dollar condos springing up on the Gowanus’ shores. But, for the next decade, nothing much happened in the water.

It was a fetid, oil covered eyesore surrounded by multi-million dollar real estate. The oil and tar on its surface was like a living organism, moving in the tidal waterway, creating shapes that I began to see and photograph. None of the pictures were manipulated. Nothing was done that couldn’t be produced in a darkroom. Many of the photographs are striking, with the colors producing recognizable figures that have a direct correlation to the life of the canal.

With this in mind, I have created the Abstracts Gowanus Canal 2025 Calendar, containing 14 of my favorite fine art images in an 8.5″ x 11″ beautifully printed format.

As the cleanup continues, these “slicks” have become fewer. Dredging is a slow and laborious process. The canal’s grotesque ooze is removed from the bottom with a backhoe, a single shovelful at a time. This is repeated, over and over, until the entire 1.6 mile length of the Gowanus is cleaned. But that doesn’t mean the Gowanus Canal will be ready for its grand reopening anytime soon.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, the city’s construction of two massive tanks and a filtration facility designed to help keep the Gowanus clean following the Superfund project won’t be completed until the end of 2032. So even with all the dredging and capping – laying a rubber seal on the canal’s bottom – the Gowanus may get dirty all over again. Taxpayers could end up footing an even larger bill due to delays, according to EPA’s project manager for the cleanup, Christos Tsiamis, who said that the city would have to pay for dredging of any additional viscous toxic material known locally as “black mayonnaise.” So for now, we have a waterway that may be cleaned soon, but will have sewage and runoff continuing to foul it until 2032, which may require dredging to begin all over again at an astronomical cost to the beleaguered taxpayer. And no recreational boating is allowed until the cleanup is completed.

I hope one day to be able to continue my journeys along the Gowanus Canal aboard my kayak. Time, and my photographs, will tell.