Photographer Eddee Daniel is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Concrete River’. To see Eddee’s body of work, click on any photograph.
People in Channel
Pulaski Pk
Nothing kills a river like concrete. How we treat rivers is suggestive of how we relate to the natural world in general. The Kinnickinnic (KK) River in Milwaukee is at once a cautionary and hopeful example.
Historically, rivers have been central to the growth of human civilization. This was as true at the founding of Milwaukee as it was in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates. Somehow, though, in the late twentieth century, our modern society lost sight of this vital truth. Milwaukee’s three rivers suffered many abuses, including habitat loss, pollution and dams.
But there’s nothing like pouring concrete into it, essentially transforming it into a drainage ditch, to signal the destruction of a river. Sections of other rivers and creeks in the Milwaukee River watershed were subject to this debasement, but the KK River suffered the most.
In the 1960s the KK was straightened and lined with concrete in an ill-advised attempt to mitigate flooding problems in the surrounding neighborhood. Initially this extreme remedy may have provided some relief from the risk of flooding; however, it also compromised the river in substantial ways. The concrete channel destroyed aquatic and riparian habitats, degraded water quality, and increased the risk of drowning during high water flows. Ironically, over time even the original intent of the channelization became outdated; instead of preventing floods, it actually began to exacerbate them.
Fortunately, for the river and for the community, attitudes have once again shifted. Caring for and revitalizing rivers has captured the public imagination. On the KK the current solution is a project to remove the concrete channel and restore the river to a more natural condition.
The Kinnickinnic River Corridor Neighborhood Plan project area is located between 6th Street and 27th Street in Milwaukee. The 50-ft. wide concrete channel, with its straight lines and geometric curves, is to be removed and a meandering 200 ft.-wide rock-lined river channel created. This has necessitated the acquisition and deconstruction of 83 homes in order to accommodate the wider river.
The work in this series captures the beginning phases of the project. We see the river in its compromised state, houses being demolished. Where the concrete channel spills into Milwaukee’s Inner Harbor the breakup of ice floes serve not only to contrast with the industrial architecture found there, but also as a metaphor to suggest the fracturing of the concrete.
Artist Statement As a fine art photographer and writer I am fascinated by the intersection of humanity and nature. I am attracted to the contradictory realities I perceive in a world that increasingly seems to teeter on the brink of ecological catastrophe. The resilience of human culture is being tested on a global scale by its own successes and failures. I see nature and humanity simultaneously in conflict and inextricably intertwined. My work deals with the tensions this creates. Historically our species has adapted to the natural environment by exploiting and altering it to suit our needs and desires for cultural and technological progress. Over time civilization gradually replaced wilderness as the dominant environmental paradigm. Humanity’s classic struggle between order and chaos has led to alienation from the natural world. In my lifetime, however, there has been a reawakening to the importance of restoring and maintaining a healthy biosphere. I am sensitive to the tensions and narratives of living in an environment that is increasingly compromised or redeemed by our own actions. Since the 1990’s I have used the paradoxical term Urban Wilderness to symbolize the complexity of my experiences as well as my creative responses to these tensions and themes. This term, which is rich with hope as well as rife with contradiction, has provided the conceptual underpinning for various bodies of work that I have undertaken in the past 30 years. Samples of them are on my website.
All images and text © Eddee Daniel
See also:
The Urban Wilderness Project / A Wealth of Nature
By Eddee Daniel
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Thank you!
It’s so sad to see nature hurt from human hands.
“Nothing kills a river like concrete.” So true, as excellently (sadly) shown in the photographs. Even seines, though helpful I suppose for dealing with erosion, look unnatural. Because they are. Thanks for this effective work!