Brooklyn and Queens, NY
2025–ongoing
Meeting at Newtown Creek is a series of diptych photographs tracing Newtown Creek, the overlooked estuary flowing inland from the East River, creating the border between Brooklyn and Queens, NY. Part of the Hudson River Estuary, Newtown Creek is linked to the currents that shaped me, growing up in Nyack, NY. I’ve oriented my life through connections to water, and in moving to Brooklyn, walks along the creek shores have immersed me in my community and local history through environmental activism. Partnering with Newtown Creek Alliance, I seek a holistic understanding of the estuary’s layered environmental history, ongoing restoration efforts, and uncertain future, grounding my practice in place and time.
Running through garbage processing facilities, rock salt storage sites, and lumber yards, under freight and commuter bridges, Newtown Creek is largely obscured by industrial traffic and development. The creek has endured centuries of toxic waste, oil spills, and salty runoff, which have destroyed the fragile brackish ecosystem, and led to its Superfund Site status as of 2009. As Newtown Creek Alliance works to revitalize the estuary’s murky waters, educate community members about its history, and construct access points and parks along the creek’s shores, my diptychs illustrate an uncertain future for Newtown Creek. Toxic industrial dumping continues, supported by the U.S. government’s attempts to hack apart the Clean Water Act, enacted in 1972, leaving marshlands and streams especially vulnerable. One can imagine the creek as clear and vital, with people convening along the shores. The Seine’s 2025 reopening for recreational swimming in Paris, marking the end of a 101 year swimming ban, is a hopeful example of repair. However, things can continue to get worse for Newtown Creek without investment in water restoration, especially as environmental protections fade. Newtown Creek’s story is especially important to tell today, as the creek represents all waterways in the United States, currently under threat from the proposed loosened restrictions around corporate toxic dumping through the dissolution of the Clean Water Act. Working with diptychs allows for these contradictory realities and opposing forces to coexist, illuminating our pivotal moment and unknown future.
Lucy Jackson 