Beneyam Hassen
Three children of the youth choir before the service. The child on the left is partly hidden; the child in the centre looks straight at the camera; the child on the right has her eyes closed. Blurred bodies stand between the camera and the group.

One Battle After Another: Living Beyond Disaster in Tallevast

Tallevast, Florida  ·  Ongoing

They recruited this community to build Cold War weapons. Then poisoned their water. Then hid it from them for four years.

The Ground
A standpipe and valve assembly rising from a bare yard, single-storey houses and palms behind it.
A single-storey house with a porch and white lattice skirting. A bicycle leans against the front.
02 1511.
A long row of potted plants along a fence, beneath a tarpaulin frame with a ceiling fan fixed to it.
A hand resting on papers spread across an outdoor table in dappled light, two dark vessels beside them.

Since the 1960s, weapon manufacturers recruited residents of this tightly knit Black community to produce beryllium arsenals. The companies offered almost no protection. Underground water was polluted with mistreated organic solvents.

Government departments knowingly postponed investigation and withheld what they knew for four years — until a resident discovered monitoring wells being installed in her own backyard.

The House
A woman standing in the doorway of her house, one hand raised to her face, dark cloth hung behind her.
A man seated at a table indoors beside a curtained window, dominoes in front of him.
An elderly man in a striped shirt sitting on a couch, light through the blinds behind him.
A man bending over his work, seen from outside through a window screen.
A young person in the doorway of a car, arms raised over their head, holding a cap.
What Is Kept
A woman and a child leaning together over an open photograph album.
10 An album, opened.
A newspaper report on the Tallevast contamination lying open on a table, beside children's crayon drawings of faces.
11 A report on the contamination, beside a child's drawing.
A phone propped on a stand showing a woman on a video call, seated at a table.

The small, largely family community has stood together for more than two decades, self-organised, fighting for justice and for the future of their children.

The Street
Young people on scooters and skateboards in the road, an adult standing at the kerb, a pickup truck parked behind.
A child in mid-air above a garden fence, other children below, a palm to one side.
A boy's face at a window, curtains drawn back around him.
A woman standing on her porch after dark, beside the house number 1511.

Residents have died of cancer at rates far above average. Women have suffered high numbers of miscarriages. Families have lost sons and daughters. Whilst still battling contamination, Tallevast now also faces corporate encroachment that threatens to remove the community altogether.

Religion
A roadside sign reading Bryant Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, 1807.
17 Bryant Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
The white front of the chapel, columns either side of the doors, bushes at the steps.
A cross on the chapel roofline against an open sky.
The congregation seen from the back of the small church, silhouetted, a draped cross at the front.
20 Sunday service.
Seen between the silhouetted heads of the congregation: people standing with hymnals, a banner reading Faith.
A woman gesturing at the front of the church; men at the pulpit with microphones and instruments.
A figure passing close to the camera, blurred; beyond her a man at the front with his hand raised.
An elder standing to read from a book. A young woman sits beside him, reading from her own.
24 Reading.
Children gathered behind the pulpit, a figure crossing the frame in front of them.
A girl standing at the lectern, framed by a dark doorway.
A woman standing in the aisle of the empty church.
A woman leaning on the back of a pew in the empty church, the aisle running away behind her.
28 The church, empty.

This is documentation of Tallevast's presence, informed through participant observation and interviews.

The outrage over what has been done to Tallevast is real and justified. But so is the strength that has met it; rooted in family, sustained by faith, and passed down through a community that refuses to be undone.

From the curators' foreword to One Battle After Another: Living Beyond Disaster in Tallevast, Williams College, 2026

Plates

  1. 01—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  2. 02—
    1511. · 2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  3. 03—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  4. 04—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  5. 05—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  6. 06—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  7. 07—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  8. 08—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  9. 09—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  10. 10—
    An album, opened. · 2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  11. 11—
    A report on the contamination, beside a child's drawing. · 2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  12. 12—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  13. 13—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  14. 14—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  15. 15—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  16. 16—
    2026-01-17 · Tallevast, Florida
  17. 17—
    Bryant Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. · 2026-01-21 · Tallevast, Florida
  18. 18—
    2026-01-21 · Tallevast, Florida
  19. 19—
    2026-01-21 · Tallevast, Florida
  20. 20—
    Sunday service. · 2026-01-18 · Tallevast, Florida
  21. 21—
    2026-01-18 · Tallevast, Florida
  22. 22—
    2026-01-18 · Tallevast, Florida
  23. 23—
    2026-01-18 · Tallevast, Florida
  24. 24—
    Reading. · 2026-01-18 · Tallevast, Florida
  25. 25—
    2026-01-25 · Tallevast, Florida
  26. 26—
    2026-01-25 · Tallevast, Florida
  27. 27—
    2026-01-21 · Tallevast, Florida
  28. 28—
    The church, empty. · 2026-01-21 · Tallevast, Florida

Photographed 17–25 January 2026.

Some names have been changed at the request of those photographed.

Further reading