About the Artist: Hannah Benet

Bio

Hannah Benet is an award-winning LA-based photographer. Having been personally affected by natural disasters such as the Porter Ranch gas blowout, Hannah roots a large portion of her work in activism to bring attention to environmental injustices. In addition to activism, she is an accomplished editorial and commercial photographer with clients including Google, Spectrum, University of California, and more. She also is a board member of APA LA, a non-profit association for professional photographers.

Background

Hannah Benet grew up in Porter Ranch, CA. Her family was not aware that they bought a house just 2.5 miles from the entrance to the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility. Growing up she was accustomed to getting frequent bloody noses and rashes. So were her classmates. When the blowout started in Oct. 2015, she didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Hannah celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas in the house with her family. They thought we were far enough away from the facility and that they were safe. In January 2016, after the entire North San Fernando Valley was breathing toxic air for 2 ½ months, then Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in the area. 

In January 2016 Hannah learned that the growing carbon footprint of the disaster was bigger than the BP oil spill of 2010. She couldn’t understand why this wasn’t getting more media attention. She wondered, “Why weren’t people in Los Angeles outraged by this environmental disaster happening in our backyards?” She realized that it’s challenging to get people motivated about something that lacks dramatic imagery. The gas is invisible. It can only be seen through infrared imaging.

In 2016 she came up with a plan to raise awareness about the disaster. Hannah took pictures of her friends and family wearing gas masks in the community that was hit the hardest - Porter Ranch. The images were shared widely through social media and she received several awards for the series. Over the past five years she has documented the grassroots movement to shut down the facility. Most of her personal work is about the blowout and the broader issue of neighborhood drilling throughout the state of Calif. Aliso Stories is the latest in a series of projects she’s developed to raise awareness about the adverse impact fossil fuel infrastructure has on neighboring communities.

Reflections by Hannah Benet: 

2020 has been a strange year to say the least. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, a movement for racial equality, and a climate crisis. I believe these things are all interconnected. If we are going to try to tackle the climate crisis, we need to think about the cause. We need to share our personal experiences as people who are poisoned by the fossil fuel industries who drill and store oil and gas next to our homes. We need to talk about how those emissions impact our climate and fuel the fires that are blanketing the west coast with smoke. We need to talk about how breathing toxic air makes us more susceptible to COVID-19. We need to talk about how 90% of communities that are adversely impacted by their close proximity to fossil fuel production facilities are low income communities of color. But at the end of the day, this impacts everyone regardless of race, socio-economic status, or political affiliation. The fossil fuel industry does not care whether you live in a red-lined neighborhood or an affluent gated community. They only care about one thing: profits.