Alan Hunter is a Seattle-based documentary photographer and visual storyteller. He studied photography at Western Washington University and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Focusing on the darker side of things, his work explores fringe culture, heavy metal music, crime, place, and the unique characters he meets along the way. Alan has participated in solo and groups exhibitions from coast to coast and has been published in a number of online and print outlets. Today we share his ongoing series titled, Green River Land.
Green River Land
Between July and mid-August 1982 the bodies of 5 young women were found in a short stretch of Washington’s Green River, about 20 miles south of downtown Seattle. Wendy Coffield, Debra Bonner, Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hinds, and Opal Mills were five of the Green River Killer’s first victims. Hiding among drab suburban normality, minutes from my childhood home, the most prolific serial murderer in American history, Gary Ridgway, continued his spree for nearly 20 years (convicted of 49 murders, but presumed to have killed closer to 90 young women). This is my exploration of Ridgway’s story and crimes, as well as the bleak, joyless suburban sprawl, stretching from Seattle’s Duwamish Waterway to the banks of the Green River in Kent to my hometown, Federal Way, that is his namesake – Green River Land.
A record of places and things central to the story, further ideas and places inspired by it, and discoveries along the way, this is not meant to be a work of entirely historical fact, but rather explore the bounds of documentary photography and art, subjectivity, and fact versus fiction.
To view more of Alan’s work please visit his website.