Communities, Chemicals and the Pollution Within
Please join us
on Saturday, June 2, 2007 at
Commonweal
451 Mesa Road • Bolinas, California
for the opening of
Communities, Chemicals and the Pollution Within
a show of photographs by Peter Essick, photographer for the September 2006 National Geographic story,
“The Chemicals Within Us”
and a conversation about the work of
Commonweal’s Biomonitoring Resource Center.
Joining us in this conversation will be individuals telling their stories about being tested for the presence of toxic chemicals in their bodies and how this information has changed how they choose to live.
12 noon until 4
Lunch served at 12:30
Presentations beginning at 2 pm
Come early and join us for an open house in the Commonweal Garden from 10 until noon that morning.
YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED.
For the first time, we are asking guests attending our June event to contribute to Commonweal, in support of its global efforts on biomonitoring and the touring exhibition of Peter Essick’s photographs.
Your contribution of $200
will include the costs of one biomonitoring test of hair for mercury for you or for someone in a community of concern and supports the touring exhibition of Peter Essick’s photographs.
Your contribution of $500
will include one biomonitoring test of urine for phthalates for you or for someone in a community of concern and supports the touring exhibition. Phthalates are reproductive toxins found in personal care products and in soft polyvinyl chloride plastic.
Your contribution of $1000
will include both the hair and urine tests for you or a person in a community of concern and provides major support for the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center.
A minimum contribution of $30 per attendee is requested.
Please register to attend by May 20 by clicking on the button below.
If you wish to register by phone, contact Michael Rafferty at 415-868-0970.
Please make your reservation your by May 20.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Peter Essick has worked as a freelance photojournalist for the past 20 years. His main client has been National Geographic magazine, for whom he has produced more than 30 stories on many different topics. His work has taken him to all seven continents in search of compelling pictures. His favorite and most rewarding stories have included works on Inner Japan, the American Wilderness, the Carbon Cycle, Global Warming and Toxic People. The photographs in this exhibit were published in an article in the October 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine titled “The Pollution Within.”
Outside of the magazine world, Essick’s photographs have been included in the Photography, Man and the Environment exhibit at Viterbo, Italy and in Thy Brothers’ Keeper exhibit at the Flint Institute of the Arts, Michigan. In April 2005, Outdoor Photographer magazine did a feature story about his efforts to photograph the effects of global warming. These photos were also seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show, This Morning with George Stephanopolis and in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Essick’s 2002 story on nuclear waste won first prize at World Press Photos in Amsterdam.