American River Archive | Exhibition

This collaboration with Edward Morris and Susannah Sayler uncovers current issues around water use in California by focusing on a single flow of water: the American River. The project consists of original photography, historical images, maps, posters and other visual material. The photos are arranged in geographical succession following the flow of the American River from its origin (the headwaters of the South Fork) to its technological containment in dams, penstocks, canals and pumping stations, and ultimately to its end use in industrial agriculture. As with other water flows in the West, the “American River” is no longer a river at all, but an elongated site of capture and distribution, with a definite beginning but diffuse end.