Currents

current – noun: flow; a flowing; something that flows, as a stream; a large portion of air, large body of water, moving in a certain direction; the speed at which such flow moves; velocity of flow; adjective: passing in time; belonging to the time actually passing; prevalent or customary; popular; in vogue; new, most recent; publicly reported; passing from one to another, as a coin; running; flowing.

Water—its absence or presence, its memory—is the prominent feature of this series, connecting the seemingly disparate settings of Arizona and Alaska. On Alsek Lake, ice floes mimic the shapes of the adjacent land forms in one shot, the shape of sea mammals in the next, a dorsal fin conjured out of ice. The wind on the crystalline water of Alsek Lake creates rippling patterns, the same patterns that are later repeated in the photographs of mud; these shapes left in the mud by currents resemble rippling water, slender fish, and tire tread. Then similar patterns emerge, larger scale, in jagged ice. In both, we see the ability of water to shift its shape, and the shape of the surrounding solid forms. A glacier melts and drips into a pool, harkening the viewer back to images of Olo and Saddle Canyons. By framing these shots in similar ways, the Glacier becomes the Canyon and vice-versa. Arizona becomes Alaska. Mile 110 of the Colorado River is similar in composition to the shot of the Tatshenshini River. By making these landscapes seemingly interchangeable, I aim to elevate the role of water in each, to highlight the utterly essential nature of water, to pay homage to the gift of water, and to mourn its loss.