Two new projects to examine emotional impact of F-35s

Photo of f-35.

Two new community-led projects are currently underway documenting the effects of F-35s on Chittenden County residents.

One of these projects is a noise and health documentary entitled “The Quietest Year” and the other being a photo-series from Winooski photographer Dan Higgins.

The photo series by Higgins was posted on the Winooski Front Porch Forum, and in this new photo series, Higgins is asking for Chittenden County residents to submit pictures of themselves reenacting their experience when F-35s fly overhead.

Higgins is a Winooski resident who has been documenting communities around Vermont through photography since the 1970s. His photography is focused on capturing the everyday lives of everyday people with a heavy emphasis on the subject being involved in the process.

He said that his photography projects aren’t just about taking photos, but rather generating a connection between the subject and his audience.

“I don’t take photos, I make them. That’s a big distinction because they’re staged. I do it when I feel there’s a reason and it’s pretty much been a way to try to connect people with the town of Winooski as it’s evolved,” Higgins said.

For this project, Higgins was inspired by one Chittenden County resident who emailed him a photo depicting all of her coworkers holding their hands over their ears as the F-35s flew overhead.

With this photo submission as well as the popularity of discussion surrounding F-35s, Higgins decided this new project would be focused on F-35s and entirely created by resident submitted photos.

“I thought since so many people are involved in talking about the F-35s and everybody seems to have a cell phone now, why not invite people to use their own cell phones to do the photography project,” said Higgins

Not being able to take the photos himself isn’t important to Higgins, and he hopes that having people take their own photos will allow them to have direct involvement in expressing their experiences.

“I thought it was a bit more of a democratic way rather than me trying to go out and make photographs,” Higgins said. “It’s to let people, with whatever skills they have, with whatever they use for a camera, generate pictures that are evidence of the distress that they have when the F-35s flyover and they have to stop whatever they’re doing.”

“People express themselves verbally all the time on Front Porch Forum, describing how much stress there is, and I thought this would be an opportunity for people to express themselves visually,” said Higgins

Higgins also says that he wants people to have fun with submitting photos and he encourages them to think like a photographer when expressing their own experiences.

“It’s about making a picture rather than taking a picture and making a picture means think about what you want to include in the picture. If you’ve been bothered sitting in front of a restaurant, reenact it, make the picture, tell the story.”

Using the visual format as a form of expression is especially important to Higgins as he believes that visuals do a better job at describing a particular issue than words,

“I do think that visual information is far more specific than words, words tend to be generalities. Historically photography has had that power.”

“Someone might say, ‘Oh this person’s complaining,’ but then they see the actual situation and it might reach people that it wouldn’t, that words wouldn’t reach” said Higgins

This new topic around F-35s and subject submitted photos, is eventually what led Higgins to post on the Winooski Front Porch Forum. Since then, Higgins has expanded the project to the entirety of Chittenden County after receiving messages from Williston, South Burlington, and Burlington.

One of the possible goals that Higgins has for this project is to hold an on-site exhibit displaying photos submitted by residents. However, the main goal of Higgins’s new project is to create a connection between the community and the experiences of the people behind the photos,

“The first phase of photography is making pictures. The second is what do you do with them? What does it generate in terms of interaction with an audience? I’m more interested in what happens when you begin to bring them together.” said Higgins

Generating meaningful connections is the most important part of photography for Higgins and with the photos being taken as well as viewed by residents themselves, those connections are even more intimate.

In a post on the Winooski Front Porch Forum, “The Quietest Year” producers asked Chittenden County residents to fill out a survey for potential interview subjects. Until the project is completely finished, however, the producers have declined to comment on the process of the project.

Regardless, “The Quietest Year” producers hope that their new documentary will properly educate people in and outside of Vermont about the effects of F-35s on noise and health.

Anyone interested in participating in the Higgins photo series is asked to send photos to his email dhiggins@uvm.edu.