Matthew Brandt
United States, born 1982
Bridge over Flint
2016
Gelatin silver prints, developed with Flint, Michigan, tap water, Vitamin C, bleach, red wine
Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, funds from the Friends of Prints, Drawings and Photographs
Matthew Brandt merges the physical materials of a landscape with the methods he uses to represent it. In Bridges Over Flint, he employs the same water that has poisoned residents of Flint, Michigan, to process his photographs. To enhance their toxic appearance, he toned them with bleach and red wine. By making the contaminated water integral to the photograph, Brandt creates a physical testament to the danger Flint residents continue to face from hazardous pollutants that are otherwise invisible to the eye.