Detonated in Southern New Mexico on July 16, 1945, Trinity’s residual fallout traveled as far as Canada, Mexico, and 46 U.S. states. Half a million people lived within the primary 150 square-mile radiation zone of the world’s first atomic bomb. 79 years later, the legacy of Trinity lives on in astounding rates of cancer and illness in these communities. A Matter of When: Stories of New Mexico's Downwinders uses archival materiality—from family photographs, letters, documents, interviews—to represent the deterioration of land and bodies exposed to radiation. It tells these stories through portraits, oral histories, and a decaying family archive. As the archive itself shows signs of aging within an environment exposed to radiation, so too do the Downwinders. A Matter of When supplements the archive with new materials to breathe life into this decay.

In the past year, I have focused on the communities in the closest 50 mile radius from Trinity. I have interviewed over 20 different families that suffer from illnesses that they believe are connected to Trinity’s radiation fallout (radiogenic cancers, thyroid issues, fertility problems, vision impairments). I have spoken to 4th generation cancer survivors who have lost children, granddaughters, parents, and neighbors to cancer. Many of these people are farmers whose primary food source comes from their own or neighbor’s gardens which are still contaminated. The Downwinders commonly say “We don’t ask if we’re going to get cancer, we ask when.”

The Downwinders are currently fighting to be included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act ("RECA") despite numerous political setbacks. As the urgency of receiving financial support for an entire community’s suffering only increases, A Matter of When is a project of preservation amidst the precarious landscape of nuclear contamination.

This work aims to embolden collective visions of future and challenge imposed Time. Downwind follows the lead of family matriarchs who don’t rest until everything they believe sacred is well-maintained. With the act of documentation is a belief that these stories deserve to live into the future.