ROBERT DAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY

THE WATER IN THE WEST PROJECT

The Middle East, Northern Africa and the American Southwest are prime examples of rain-poor regions. There, water means wealth and lack of it means relative poverty. We are now in a drought here in the West. There is talk of starting to ration water. Its been the driest year on record in southern California. The Sierra snow pack is very low. This recent note that I sent to a friend in New York explains why our lack of rain has spread fear of a severe fire season in the West. It reminds me of our last severe drought in the 1980s. At that time it hardly rained for six years. The snow pack that feeds the state during the dry summer and fall months is as low now as it was then. We are living on borrowed time in the West and many of us know that an extended drought can occur here at any time.

The American West was settled during an unusually wet period and during the 20th Century we have come to expect ample rain and snow to slake our need for water. But that could change at any moment. Tree ring samples have shown that before the coming of European and American settlers the West had extended periods of drought, sometimes up to thirty years. If even a ten-year drought were to occur much of California and the West may have to depopulate. The economic consequences to Californias economy would be staggering. With the worlds fifth largest economy a prolonged drought in California would have profound effects throughout the rest of the United States and the world.

Since 1950 the world has tripled its water use. The Ogallala aquifer (underlying most of the Great Plains) and other key aquifers in India and China continue unrelenting declines. During the growing season, the entire Colorado River vanishes into city water systems and farmland furrows before it can empty into the Gulf of California; for the same reasons that Chinas Yellow River no longer reaches the sea. While the water crisis is global, Robert Dawson has chosen to focus his Water in the West project on the American West. It is here that the impact of our water crisis stands out.

For Dawson, water is the most compelling metaphor and prescient symbol for the legacy of attitudes that have profoundly shaped the landscape of the West. The full range of our nation's regard for the natural world has manifested itself in western water history-from loving stewardship and respect to abuse and plunder. Dawsons photography examines the cultural values and attitudes that have brought us to this critical point with the natural world.

Robert Dawson's photography in the Water in the West Project evolved from his travels throughout the West and his look at our culture's relationship to water. The work is concerned about our attitudes toward agriculture, mining, resource development, recreation, Native Americans, growth, and environmental controversy. Some of the work addresses the issues with irony. Some of the work looks at our culture's desire to possess, control and shape the land and water to our needs. Some photographs document abuse while others examine a complex, evolving relationship to water that Dawson hopes to influence with his work.

Link to book.

Reemerging Tulare Lake, San Joaquin Valley, CA, Amax Mine, Climax, CO, Center of 1930s Dust Bowl, now Rita Blanca National Grasslands, south of Boise City, OK, Cimarron National Grasslands, KS, Deactivated Reactor B Nuclear Plant and farmland on the Columbia River, Hanford Reach, WA (diptych), Diverting water into a hand-built flume, Lee Vining Creek, Owens Valley, CA, Drip irrigation, San Joaquin Valley, Ellen and Walker under Los Angeles Aquaduct, Owens Valley, CA, Eroding mine tailings, Ruth, NV, Flooded Salt Air Pavilion Great Salt Lake UT, Hand built gate, Parker Creek, CA, Hoover dam, AZ$NV, Hotsprings, Glenwood Springs, CO, Indian fishing platforms, Deschutes River, OR, Irrigated field, Imperial Valley, CA, Lake and clouds, San Joaquin Valley (diptych), Looking down on spray, Shasta Dam, CA, Lucky Peak dam, near Boise, ID, Map of the Headwaters of the Colorado River, Rocky Mt. National Park, CO, Mono Lake #1, Mono Lake, CA., Most of San Francisco's water supply comes through this one pipe from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, near Mather, CA, Native boy and fisherman, mouth of the Klamath River, CA, Irrigation using Klamath River water, Tule Lake, CA, Owens Valley water leaving Owens Valley and entering Los Angelels, CA (diptych), Private Property, Glenbrook, NV (diptych), Private property, Lake Tahoe, CA, Shasta dam, Shasta Lake and Mt. Shasta, CA, Smelterville, ID, Snow on Joshua Trees, Joshua Tree National Park, CA (diptych), Straight River, Red Mountain Pass, CO, Tunnel, Feather River, CA, Two scientists discussing the demise and restoration of California's salmon, Sacramento River, CA, Wastewater treatment with algae, San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant, San Jose, CA, Footprints and irrigation, Yuma, AZ, Garrison dam, Upper Missouri River, ND, Snow pack in July, Mt. Lassen, CA, Agua 2000, Imperial Valley., CA, Aquaduct, Sierra Foothills, CA, Bikers and train tracks, Mojave Desert, CA, Bikers and sand dunes, near Yuma, AZ, Birds taking off, Salton Sea, CA, Black Canyon of Gunnison, CO, Bleachers and Falls, Yosemite National Park, CA, Bridge over Mojave River, Mojave Desert, CA, Bullet riddled sign, Tahoe National Forest, CA, California Water Project, San Joaquin Valley, CA, Clouds, Sacramento River, and Bay Point, CA (triptych), Creek restoration, Lake Tahoe, CA, Dam Salmon River,WA (diptych), Devil's Postpile National Monument, CA, Dry riverbed, Dodge City, KS, Standing above what was once California's first state fish hatchery, Lake Shasta, CA, Shrinking Polar ice cap, Prudoe Bay, AK, Ice machine, Mono Hot Springs, CA, Indians Fishing, Lahonton Reservoir, NV, Jumping on glacier, Yosemite National Park, CA, Klamath River, CA, Latourell Falls, OR, Looking down road, Great Basin National Park, NV, Mammoth Hot Springs, WY, Man and lake, Great Basin National Park, NV, Man with fish, 1000 Island Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness, CA, Michael and the Jehovah Witnesses, Mono Hot Springs, CA, Mouth of Yellowstone River WY, Mt. Dana, Yosemite National Park, CA, O'Shaughnessy Dam, Yosemite National Park, CA, Ocean to Ocean Highway, Yuma, AZ, High water at Badwater, Death Valley National Park, CA, Swimming pool, Death Valley National Park, CA, Prayer flag, Devil's Homestead Lava Flow, Lava Beds National Monument, CA (triptych), Princeton Ferry, Sacramento Valley, CA, Ranger holding ice, Kenai Fjords National Park, AK, Sand, lake and Sierras, Mono Lake, CA, Snake crossing the road, Carrizzo Plain National Monument, CA, Snow covered pier, Lake Tahoe, CA, Spring flooding, Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite National Park, CA, Stanislaus River, CA, Steamboat Springs, NV, Storm over Walker Lake, NV., Taking the Waters, Summer Lake, OR, Two years into a six year drought, Sierra Foothills, CA, Uranium Drive-In, Naturita, CO, Walker holding cotton, San Joaquin Valley, CA, Walker and Merced Manor Reservoir, San Francisco, CA, When dams go bad, Auburn dam, CA.