This image of an oil-spill cleanup has a serious but other-worldly feel to it. It combines identifiable people with industrial-scale pollution, which our research found was an important factor in determining people's sense of the seriousness of the problem.
WHAT IT SHOWS: USA. Louisiana. 2010. Grand Isle. Contract workers on beach clean-up duty. The beach in Grand Isle stretches for about 7 miles and is divided into 14 zones. Workers (paid $12-18 an hour) are hired to clean the beaches. In the morning they are assembled. They are poor, unemployed from all over the US. Many from Florida, Texas and Mexico. Through the oil spill some will gain State residency in Louisiana. Two in foreground (man in red shirt and his co-worker) are Antonio and Angelita. They are both from Mexico (Monterey and Veracruz).