In the early 1970s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a sweeping photography project called Documerica. The goal was straightforward: send photographers across the country to document environmental conditions and the everyday lives of Americans. In the Pacific Northwest — Oregon, Washington, and Alaska — the cameras caught a region in the middle of dramatic change. Industrial growth, an energy crisis, and massive infrastructure projects were all reshaping communities at the same time.
Washington State offered some of the most striking contrasts in the entire collection. Cities like Seattle buzzed with commerce and industry, while rural communities and natural landscapes existed just miles away. The Documerica photographers captured both sides of that divide with equal attention.
Seattle’s waterfront told its own story. The Port of Seattle handled heavy freight while industrial waste barges were towed to landfill sites along the Snohomish River estuary — a routine operation that the Documerica project quietly recorded as an environmental reality of the era.
While Seattle represented urban industry, Spokane was preparing for something entirely different. The city was clearing large sections of its downtown — including rail yards and industrial land along the Spokane River — to build the site for Expo ’74, a World’s Fair centered on an environmental theme. The scale of demolition was enormous, and the Documerica cameras were there to record every phase of it.
The 1973 energy crisis hit the Pacific Northwest hard. Gas stations ran dry regularly, and the shortages changed how people moved through their daily lives. In Portland and surrounding areas, the effects were visible everywhere — from dimmed streetlights to handwritten “Out of Gas” signs posted at service stations.
The desperation was not limited to working-class residents. In Beaverton, Oregon, the shortage was severe enough that suited businessmen stood on roadsides hitching rides. A Portland father and son posted a sign at their vehicle threatening consequences for anyone who stole their gas. Schoolchildren across the region rode bicycles on field trips because buses couldn’t always be fueled.
Oregon’s landscapes and industries also received thorough documentation. The Columbia River drew particular attention, with photographers recording fishing boats crowding the water between Vancouver, Washington, and The Dalles, Oregon. Sports fishermen pulled large silver salmon from the river while paper mills and metal plants operated on its banks at Longview, Washington.
Not all of Washington’s environmental concerns were tied to the energy crisis. In Ruston, children played in their yards while a Tacoma Smelter stack showered the neighborhood with arsenic and lead residue — a documented, ongoing hazard that the photographers recorded without flinching. Near Poulsbo, a quieter threat loomed: the Navy’s proposed Trident submarine base was set to bring significant population growth to the surrounding area.
The Columbia River also appeared in scenes of agriculture and small-town life. Near Vancouver, Washington, threshing operations at Pearson Field carried on with the Goodyear Blimp floating in the background. The town of Cathlamet sat quietly on the riverbank, offering a glimpse of rural Washington far removed from the urban activity happening in Seattle or Spokane.
In Alaska, the Documerica project arrived at a pivotal moment. Construction on the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline was about to begin — a direct response to the energy crisis, designed to move oil from the northern coast down to the southern port of Valdez. Photographers documented the pipeline corridor, construction camps, and the surrounding wilderness before the full weight of the project transformed the land.
The Alaskan photographs balanced industrial documentation with imagery of the territory’s vast and largely undisturbed landscape. Dall sheep descended through Atigun Gorge, caribou crossed gravel roads, and the Alaska Ferry M/V Bartlett cut westward across Prince William Sound — all captured by photographers working at the edge of the continent before the pipeline era fully took hold.
