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The photograph of the Foothill Plant provides ethnographic insight about how archival images can foster reflection about how toxicity becomes emplaced at different sites, as well as how it not only initially transforms that place but how it evolves through structural change - social, discursive, material, representational, economic, etc.  Toxicity is ironically revealed to me as an 'enlivening' process evidencing the reproduction of certain mobilizations of power and their concomitant arrangements of society. Archival imagery provides productive evidence of this process.

I think the caption is comprehensive enough. Although, being finicky, Nadine may make mention of theoretical/conceptual influences that helped to shape the archival turn and how/why this particular image caught her eye. In so doing, the caption could open a path for those interested to explore the methodological approach that is being championed here. 

This is a found image, located through archival work (it appears). The aerial view works well to provide an overview of the territoriality of toxicity as well as its structuring effects e.g. contruction of border, zones, bridges, and the like.  It may be productive if this composition was contrasted with ground level imagery that takes the viewer into the everydayness of this structural toxicity and how it subsequently can orientate us to the point of not being aware of its scale thus fostering an acceptance of it (or resignation to it?).  

It would be interesting if this composition was contrasted with ground level imagery that takes the viewer into the everydayness of this structural toxicity and how it subsequently can orientate us to the point of not being aware of its scale and thus become accepting of (or resigned to?) it. A sort of hidden in plain site effect. Or, alternatively, overlaying of various periods of toxic emplacement at this site that evidence change but also the persistent reproduction of certain systems of power and concomitant arrangements of society - a toxic terriotriality. 

The image draws my attention to toxicity as territorial, persistent, and 'enlivening' and how such processes should be evidenced through archival research if we are to truly appreciate  structuring effects and emplacement. I also found myself thinking a lot about scale and time here. For instance, how the archival evidence of scale and time of toxicity generated for me a sadness that this is where we are at and have been for quite some period. Looking at the image I felt that any just transition to a non-toxic future is almost inconceivable.

This visualization situates the toxic place in context, first historically, and second spatially, depicting the proposed housing development as stuck between the past weapon development facilities and the enduring interstate highway system. As such, the visualization provides an important frame for the visualization that precedes it.

In general, I wonder if you might be able to provide more details relating to the toxicity of the site. One question I am left with is why the spaces previously dedicated to the facilities for munitions development represent a heightened danger. Were these building structures themselves contaminated? The pollution from the highway is more immediately imaginable, but I require more information to understand the implications of the munitions development program.

As an archival photograph taken by the Navy of its own facility, this image works well to provide a sense of the historical context. The grainy grayscale and in-set captions enhance this sense of temporality. 

I think this image works well on its own in combination with the caption. However, the historicizing aesthetic of the image might also lend itself well to being repurposed into a collage, for example juxtaposing this photograph with black and white newspaper clippings, or framing it with a map of the area that could further situate the site in a broader landscape of hills and highways. 

This visualization combination shines a light on debates over what differentiates a toxic space from a liveable space. At the intersection of the 20th-century military-industrial complex and 21st-century housing policies, 3202 East Foothill Boulevard exemplifies the invisible debilitating violence of unscrupulous city planning.