Land Without Water

Three portfolios (Bristlecone, Death Valley, and Almost Ghost Towns) are about the arid eastern edge of California. The character of the area was shaped by millennia of increasing dryness that caused forests to move up the mountains to become desert islands.  This area was lightly inhabited before the invasion in the 19th century by those seeking mineral riches.  As the extraction of gold and silver and other precious metals ran out, the mining towns shrank and died.  The lowest areas of eastern California are the hottest and driest.

Each of these three portfolios involved many trips over several years.  The harsh landscape and the remnants of human passing are reminders that we play a small part in the long-term scheme of things.

Click on an image to view the full portfolio

Almost Ghost Towns

An old hand-hewn fence stands in the Owens Valley, a long ago remnant of ranch boundaries before the City of Los Angeles bought up the land to get the water rights.

Bristlecone

The bristlecone pines survive by letting parts of themselves die off and growing a new trunk. This leads to convoluted shapes of joined trunks before this tree finally died in the harsh environment.

Death Valley

Do you realize how hard it is to walk a sand dune?The dawn light rakes across the unmarked sand dunes of Death Valley. The dunes been shaped by the hot wind all summer long and no one dared to walk them in the heat. Unmarked by humans, they wait in the constant wind. Soon the tourists will arrive and mark the dunes with their footsteps.

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