Imagine living in your home in Mason County, West Virginia for 43 years. Imagine living less than two miles across the Ohio River from the Kyger Creek substation and the Gavin Power Plant - the deadliest coal-fired power plant in the United States according to a 2023 report from the Sierra Club. Now, imagine that an out of state company is building a 2,000-acre data center campus one foot away from your property line.
That’s what Marsha and Randy Frame of Point Pleasant, West Virginia have been dealing with for well over a year now. Microsoft’s Monarch Compute Campus will likely be the largest data center in the world when completed next year.
I spent some time with the Frames yesterday at their home with a small group of community activists and environmental workers who have been trying to raise awareness about the devastating effects of this development.
I’m at a loss for words, but hope to visit the Frames again soon.
My wife recently made a point to tell me that I should invest in my art. While she specifically was referring to a lens I was debating buying, I’ve extended that to also mean time. I’ve been investing more time (and dollars) in my artistic practice.
I’ve been more intentional about making time for pictures as well as reading about photography as a practice. I recently rediscovered my copy of Daylight’s 2012 Photographs Not Taken, edited by Will Steacy. I’ve really enjoyed several of the short essays and while I’m still working my way through it, I highly recommend it.
I was recently gifted a copy of Gregory Halpern’s latest monograph, King, Queen, Knave (MACK, 2025). There are a number of things about Halpern’s work I admire, but probably the biggest pull for me is his continued commitment to photographing his hometown of Buffalo, New York. For more than two decades, he’s been making pictures in and around Buffalo and this book is a brilliant nod to his way of seeing. Halpern also has an essay in Photographs Not Taken. (Thank you, RJF!)
A couple of years ago, I made a corner desk in our basement/office/studio out of two sheets of plywood. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had my desktop setup in the corner, which worked well until I decided I needed a change (and more elbow room).
While I love the new setup, the lighting situation was less than ideal. I found a 42” desk lamp on Amazon for under $40 and have been very pleased with it so far. (Note: I wrestle with buying from Amazon, but I couldn’t source anything locally.)
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Until next week,
- Roger
Nice setup and respect for still using an Intel era iMac. I finally replaced my 2017 version with an M5 Air this month and wow is it snappy. Now I need to save up for a new external monitor.
We have a monster data center going up just north of us. I'm confident our mayor and others in the city will lose their roles in the next election since lots of the negotiating and agreement with the data center was done behind closed doors. https://portwashingtondata.org/
I appreciate those two book recommendations. I'll put them on my library list.