Arid Waters: Photographs from the Water in the West Project

Arid Waters is a photographic response to the growing crisis of water scarcity, which exists because of the tendency to think of water as a commodity, or an abstract legal right, rather than the most basic physical source of life. The Water in the West Project began as a collaborative effort designed to present an artistic response to water as a social issue. Photography historian Ellen Manchester and the photographers—Mark Klett, Terry Evans, Laurie Brown, Peter Goin, Robert Dawson, Martin Stupich, Gregory Conniff, and Wanda Hammerbeck—address the question: How can photography contribute to the urgent public debate over water use and allocation? Project members prepared an exhibition of their work, defining it as a laboratory and emphasizing the process of working through ideas. This collection documents the evolution of the Water in the West Project from its inception as a group collaboration to the foundation of an archive.