“New Madrid Floodway” by Jeffrey Rich

This image was taken during the flooding of the Mississippi River in 2011. This image shows farmland that is underwater because of the activation of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway. The Army Corps of Engineers dynamited a large section of the Bird’s Point Levee to ease the flooding on Cairo, IL. The activation of the floodway subsequently flooded 130,000 acres of farmland.

This image is part of The Watershed Project which is an ongoing documentation of the southeastern Mississippi Watershed. Work from the series can be seen at jeffreyrich.com as well as watershed-project.com. – Jeffrey Rich

Equipment and settings: K.B. Canham DLC45 4″x5″ large format field camera, 90mm f/6.8 Caltar II-N MC wide angle lens (manufactured by Rodenstock for Calument) – Exposure of one second at f/45 – Kodak 4×5″ Ektar 100 Color Negative Print Film

This image and others from the series are available as a print through request at the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery here. Find Rich’s portfolio at his website, www.jeffreyrich.com, and you can stay updated on his work by following him on his blog here.