Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon presents Bootsy Holler: Contaminated, on view from 1 October through 31 October 2026, a layered exploration of the tens of thousands affected by radiation illnesses and the secrets kept at the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington State. The exhibition emerges from Holler's personal history: her grandfather Willie arrived in the area in late 1942 as one of the initial land surveyors employed by the Hanford Engineering Works, a covert operation known as the Manhattan Project. Soon after, he was recruited by DuPont, the primary operating contractor, and became a chemist at Hanford.
Located on 586 square miles near Richland, Washington, the Hanford Site was the birthplace of the world's first nuclear bomb, utilized during World War II by the United States. An undertaking of this magnitude had never been attempted, and the records maintained on employees' safety were later deemed inadequate. The United States Department of Labor now administers the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which commenced in October 2000 and provides compensation to employees and their families who contracted specific illnesses related to their employment at the Hanford Site.
Contaminated encapsulates the consequences experienced by individuals and the land in and around the Hanford Area. This is where Holler was born. This is where her family lived until 2022. Her family, thousands of other employees, locals, and the land have all been impacted. In the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War, the nuclear reactors at Hanford were decommissioned, encased in tombs of cement, and left behind with 56 million gallons of highly hazardous, mixed nuclear waste. To this day, the Hanford Area houses two-thirds of the United States' radioactive waste and stands as one of the world's biggest and most complex environmental cleanup efforts.
Bootsy Holler, born in 1969, earned a BA in Studio Arts from Western Washington University in Bellingham. After graduating, she started a design manufacturing business and worked as a freelance photographer. In the 1990s and 2000s, she captured bands in the Seattle music scene. In 2025, Damiani Books published MAKiNG iT, an intimate documentary about her experiences shooting in the scene and the passion to create. As a multidisciplinary artist, Holler has dedicated three decades to documenting and creating work about family, history, and the power to tell stories. In her new work she transcends traditional flat prints, creating photo-sculptures.
Holler's work has been exhibited globally in galleries and institutions, including Leica London. Her photographs have appeared in publications like VOGUE, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, and Chinese Photographer Magazine, and her seminal work is in the Grammy Museum's permanent collection. She is a full-time artist living in Los Angeles with her family and spends her summers in the San Juan Islands of Washington. The cleanup at Hanford, governed by the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement between the Department of Energy, the EPA, and Washington State, was originally scheduled to be complete within thirty years but remains ongoing, with estimates extending into the 2070s.
Image: Maude & Margerite - Ovary, 2023 - 2024 © Bootsy Holler
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