In 2016, those who determine such things officially agreed the Earth had entered a new Epoch in its evolutionary age. Termed the Anthropocene, it is defined as human-influenced, where our activity has caused irreversible changes to land, oceans, and air. This new earth age is the starting point for this body of work that explores vast human-altered landscapes. I am both concerned and curious how repercussions from our rapidly expanding world need for Agriculture, Energy, and Water, impact our planet.
I investigate places where the natural ecosystem has been altered or destroyed to provide for our burgeoning world population. In the Palouse grasslands - now wheat fields - of eastern Washington, a mono-crop landscape terraformed through agricultural commerce creates a sense of bucolic perfection while disguising the underlying impact of single crop planting. Old and new energy extraction techniques in California are compared with images from the largest thermal solar plant on earth at Ivanpah, the fracking-revived oilfields at Oildale near Bakersfield, and massive windmill farms in the Palm Desert. Owens Lake in California and Lake Mead in Arizona illustrate how the demand for water has changed the landscape: a patchwork quilt of dust suppression measures in one and a high water “bathtub ring” in the other.
In each location, I was simultaneously dazzled and disturbed by the scope of these transformations - many occurring in my lifetime. What was revealed I found compelling - strangely alien but completely human. By allowing human intervention to speak over the landscape itself in my images, I imagine a new landscape, more of its Age, that highlights the dilemmas faced when considering a balance between exploitation and preservation.