Water is a tangled history. After more than five years of severe drought in California, this year’s winter storms brought an incredible amount of rain and snowfall. Come spring, the unprecedented precipitation brought relief to the drought stricken region, but along with the water came a new set of concerns: floods, infrastructure damage, cracking dams, and overflowing reservoirs. Waterlines is a response to the urgencies of water in the age of extreme weather and climate change. How do shifts in weather and the fluctuation of scarcity to abundance shape the climate of behavior? When and where does it become personal? A series of cyanotypes, created on-site in an intensive two-week collaboration in Northern California with painter Jonathan Marquis, thread together a correspondence of water and human activity. The immediacy of the cyanotype engages both photography and painting, presenting an appropriate medium to collaborate and examine the issue of water. Final prints: 22" x 30"
Exposing a cyanotype with 4x5 negative, step one in a multi-step exposure process.
Second layer of cyanotype processing on the beach.
Tomiko processing cyanotype in the ocean.
Jonathan tinkering with sand and sea.
Collection of cyanotypes on the beach.
Elk Beach
Initial 4x5 image. Iconic view of Yosemite Valley.
Initial 4x5 image. Water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite, runs through pipes on its way to supply drinking water for San Francisco, CA.
Initial 4x5 image. After winter storms, excessive water was released due to the structural instability of the dam and cracked spillway that threatened to burst and flood those living downstream.
Initial 4x5 image. Navarro River, winter debris.
Initial 4x5 image. Greenwood Creek flowing to the Pacific Ocean. Collaboration with the water, salt, wind, sand, seaweed and debris made on this beach.
Initial 4x5 image.