Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma

On May 10, 2008, a tornado in the northeastern Oklahoma town of Picher struck the final blow to a onetime boomtown. The lead and zinc mining that had given birth to the town had also proven its undoing, earning Picher the distinction of being the nation’s most toxic Superfund site in 2006. Todd Stewart’s photoessay Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma explores the otherworldly ghost town and reveals how memory can be dislocated and reframed through both chronic and acute instances of environmental trauma. Click here to view the press release. Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma is on display at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma June 13-Sept. 10, 2017.