The Cloud Factory - Hardcover

by Chris Donovan (Author)

In 2014, photographer Chris Donovan began documenting his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick on Canada's east coast--a small, heavily industrialised city which is home to Canada's largest oil refinery, one of the country's wealthiest families, and one of its highest rates of child poverty. His photographs show the vibrant neighbourhoods and their inhabitants living in close proximity to and in the shadows of polluted industrial sites, and 'the cloud factory'--an undefined industrial site which references both the refinery and large pulp mill in the city. Driven to explore environmental classism and injustices perpetrated on the city by others, Donovan's aim is to expose the culture of censorship which has controlled the environmental narrative and tightened its grip on the community for decades.

Author Biography

Chris Donovan is a documentary photographer based in eastern Canada. He is also an educator and PhD candidate at Toronto Metropolitan University. Donovan's work has been recognised by the World Press Photo Awards, Pictures of the Year International, the Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant, and the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award. His regular editorial clients include The New York Times and The Globe and Mail. Inspired by his industrialised hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick, Donovan's work focuses on visual representations of communities with industrialised and post-industrial economies, with a particular focus on Atlantic Canada and the American Midwest.