Articles
‘We Fear the Water’About two years ago, the city of Flint,...
Reportage by Getty Images TumblrPhoto by Brittany Greeson
Photo by Brittany Greeson
Photo by Brittany Greeson
Photo by Brittany Greeson
‘We Fear the Water’
About two years ago, the city of Flint, Michigan, changed its municipal water source in an effort to cut costs. Soon after, residents said the water looked and smelled funny. State officials long denied anything was wrong with the water, but researchers soon discovered it had unsafe levels of iron and lead from corroding pipes. Local officials are still struggling to decontaminate the water, leaving residents to use bottled water for drinking, washing their hands and preparing food.
Photographer Brittany Greeson, a Reportage Emerging Talent, started covering the crisis in spring of 2015, when she was an intern for The Flint Journal and the story was not yet national news. She teamed up with the Ground Truth Project, an organization that supports journalism about social justice and human rights, to producer her essay “We Fear the Water.” Her photos show the intimate impact of the crisis – a girl has her blood tested for lead, a man lugs a bag of bottled water through the snow – as well as the political narrative, as residents demand accountability.
“This story isn’t finished yet,” says Greeson. “So naturally, I’m not finished yet either.”
See more of her photos in The Atlantic.
