Fracking America
This exhibition is about the people, towns, farms, and empty lands in one remote rural Pennsylvania County impacted by fracking. Hydraulic fracking occurs throughout our country. The economic and social effects of this are long-lasting.
October 7-November 1, 2026
Portrait of A Rural Pennsylvania County
I eliminated all of the proper names of people and places. The titles of the photographs are mostly from the sitters themselves and how they want to be identified. They were excited to participate in this way.
I have seen
the landscape
the buildings
the churches
the people
who live in this remote
isolated, rooted place
in rural Pennsylvania,
Where the little guy dreams
about thriving family farms
in the surrounding countryside.
But
Beneath the flowing hills,
the wild fauna and aging structures
is the rich Marcellus shale with its pipes
horizontal ones for miles,
vertical ones for more than a mile.
Pipes on top of each other
or next to each other
harvesting natural gas microdroplets
from the graves of life that departed
more than a millennia ago.
Fracking needs lots of water.
Around 14 million gallons per well.
Trucks bring in water too
along with sand from the Midwest.
Some of it flows back to the surface
laced with chemicals, sand, salts and
debris from the bowels of the earth.
All of it becomes poisoned by fracking
Millions of gallons of fracked
flowback water needs to be
stored in large tanks or
diluted or reused or quietly
poured on the country roads.
The sky is not immune, Flares
of methane are released into
the air we breathe.
Testing is needed
for the soil,
for the water,
for the air.
Can we eat what is grown on the family farms
atop the rich Marcellus shale?
Not sure.
Will there be Data Centers smothering
the empty fields and forests?
Possibly.
This is real.
Fracking America
Margery Stein Schab
Friends of the Forest
A Uniform Hieroglyphic
Little Mother Hen and Roman Soldier
Drilling Rig
Barn on Leased Land
Rouser
Local Publisher
Wild Aminal Lover
Peace with Life and Nature
Organizer
Long Time Resident
Town Hall
House on Leased Land
A.M.E. Zion Church
Tombstone
Local Store
Long Married Couple
Pizza Maker
Busy Bees
Calvary
These are platinum/Palladium Prints
Prints are matted (14" w x 18"h)
Sold Unframed
$450.00
About Margery Stein Schab
Margery was born in Philadelphia and now resides in New York. For decades, she has been fascinated with the paintings, prints and drawings of Old European masters and how they focused on humanity over vanity. She studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and received a BA in Art History and a minor in Music from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965, with an emphasis on early European Renaissance to early Baroque artists. In 1980, she received an MA in Arts Administration from NYU. From the mid 1980s until 2014, she worked with her husband at his gallery, William H. Schab Master Prints & Drawings.
She photographed rare drawings and prints for the gallery and collectors. She felt that capturing the underlying spirit of those works was a visual arts performance. Her teachers included Sam Feinstein and Neil Welliver. Margery is inspired by the early photographic portraitists. As they did, she treats her sitters with empathy and respect.
She was an early participant in the anti-fracking movement and wrote on natural gas economics and the toxicity of fracking waste. With a Rolleiflex, a digital camera, and an iPhone, she photo-documented her trips to rural Pennsylvania where fracking occurs.
Exhibitions
1998 The National Alpine Museum of Switzerland
1999 The Albany State House, Residents in Nursing Homes
2001 The Camera Club of New York
2021 The Arts Society of Kingston, Residents in Nursing Homes
2023 The Grolier Club, New York City, Group Show Portraits
2024-26 Various Group exhibitions at Soho Photo Gallery
2026-Oct. Solo Exhibition at Soho Photo Gallery
Credits
Gratitude to my friends, family and
instructors who helped me bring this
project to fruition. I want to thank
the Puffin Foundation for their
support of this project.
Special thanks to those residents who sat for me,
the professors, master printers, fellow
photographers, scientists, environmental
organizations, and volunteers. They
informed me about the harm fracking
has on their communities.
Hours
Wednesday - Sunday
Noon - 6:00 PM
Or by appointment
October 7- November 1, 2026
Soho Photo Gallery
539 W. 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
212-226-8571