“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it’s the only one we have.” -Emile Chartier Alain
FLOW
Artist’s Note: I’ve been visiting family in the high desert of Southeastern Arizona for a couple decades now but on this trip, I ventured farther afield and quickly learned that, out in the wild, it’s an unforgiving place. The sun was unexpectedly intense as I hiked the Huachucas, so I decided to make my way down to the San Pedro River, snaking across the desert floor below. I had come to photograph the mountains along the border, but the idea of a river running through this rugged desert was intriguing. Finding only the remnants of the river, however, piqued my interests even more. Where had it gone?
Huachuca Mountains, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 10
“The Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously stated that ‘you can’t step into the same river twice,’ but as I stood on a wide, sandy path near the Mexican border in Arizona, I couldn’t find a river to step in once.”
Dry River, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 10
“The San Pedro begins its journey on Mexico’s Sierra El Manzanal Mountain and traces a rare northern route through the middle of an ancient rift valley with high, flanking mountains alongside it (part of the Madrean Sky Islands Archipelago). Rainwater has flowed down the surrounding mountains and collected in the valley aquifer for millions of years, supplying the river and an attendant ribbon of green flora through a mostly hostile, dry desert. But the river is disappearing.”
Cottonwoods, San Pedro River, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 10
“As the river has descended farther underground, it’s caused alarm in some quarters, but a shrug in others. Leaving the hot desert floor to walk under an expansive, bird-filled canopy of trees, however, it’s easy to understand just how precious this place is and why it’s considered a ‘national treasure.’”
It’s How You Frame It, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 25
Shelter, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 25
“It’s not hyperbole to call this river ‘critical’: millions of birds from more than 350 species in North America use the San Pedro at some point in their lives and it’s home to dozens of mammal and reptile species—some of which exist nowhere else on the planet.”
Quotes were taken from the accompanying essay, FLOW. Read the entire essay here.
Montezuma’s Pass, Above the San Pedro, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 10
Tree Stand, San Pedro River, 2022 Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 10