Long Exposures, 2016

What if you could see air quality?

The average adult human takes 15 to 20 breaths per minute. The air we breathe teems with the by-products of human industry and transportation. These particles and gases are invisible to our eyes, yet for decades it has been evident that long-term exposure to poor air quality imprints lasting damage onto individuals and communities. While most of us remain in the dark about the particular causal chain of human activity, wind patterns, and atmospheric chemistry that characterizes the air that we breathe, LONG EXPOSURES asks: what would you see, if you could see air quality?

I worked with Elaine Laguerta and Joseph Burg who built the AQ stick: an air quality visualizer made with an arduino chip, a particulate sensor, and a broom stick. I took long exposure images of Elaine walking around with the AQ stick in San Francisco where people and cars intersect, and we compiled these into videos to show the cumulative air quality exposure in these places at a typical point in time.