California’s Pipe Dream | National Geographic

the project was called plumbing
California it was really a chance to go
look at the ground zero of water
I – I where the water is such a key
element to literally terraforming a
desert into farmland and taking desert
and turning it into one of the biggest
cities in the world Los Angeles
how did California do it how did they
you know make this happen I realized
that I had to somehow get up I needed to
get up to show what’s happening to that
landscape I needed that well-defined
middle ground to begin to tell that
story
I used helicopters I used fixed planes
drove 4,000 miles with a bucket lifting
all across California which gave me
about a 50 foot elevation through a
combination of all those things I felt I
was able to begin to show the kind of
critical areas where things have gone
wrong so this is the Owens Lake where
the water was diverted for Los Angeles
leaving the lake to dry up creating one
of the most toxic lake beds and the sand
storms in America selenium some arsenic
all these thing as heavy metals
pesticides are in that lake bed to be a
photographer you actually have to also
become a witness to the thing that
you’re photographing and to bear witness
allows one to say I think these things
are happening in the world that I saw it
with my own eyes so to speak
that excites me to be part of this big
conversation that’s going on right now
our species in its relationship to this
planet