The Cloud Factory by Chris Donovan

Join us for the launch of Media & Design Innovation PhD student Chris Donovan's new book, The Cloud Factory (2025, GOST Books) on March 13th, 4 - 6 pm in The Catalyst.

"As a child I looked up at the smokestacks and asked my father 'do they make all the world's clouds?' 'no,' he replied 'they make money'"

In 2014, photographer Chris Donovan began documenting his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick on Canada's east coast. Saint John is a small, heavily industrialised city which is home to Canada's largest oil refinery, one of the country's wealthiest families, and one of its highest rates of child poverty. As Donovan began to photograph the city and its residents—driven to explore the proximity of extreme wealth and poverty— he became increasingly aware of the realities of environmental classism and ecological injustices in the city.