Dreams on the Dying Stone (2022 - ongoing)
“Then humans will come ashore and paint dreams on the dying stone”
- Joy Harjo
Stretching along the US-Mexico border between the Salton Sea and the Colorado River, Dreams on the Dying Stone documents the communities of California’s Imperial Valley. This agricultural region was born in the 20th century when fortune-seeking settlers transformed the desert into farmland by digging canals to divert water from the Colorado. The Imperial Valley now produces most of the country’s winter vegetables, consuming more of the river’s water than Arizona and Nevada combined, yet it remains the poorest county in the Western United States.
This project documents the clash between constructed agricultural landscapes and the harsh, natural beauty of the desert. It focuses on the daily lives of local communities whose existence, often dependent on agriculture, is being permanently altered by water scarcity and the climate crisis. By photographing the people whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to this changing environment, this series explores the desert not just as physical but as an imagined place—a canvas upon which humans have long projected their ideas of progress and change. Dreams on the Dying Stone chronicles the collision between human ambition and environmental reality, revealing the limits of progress when confronted with the unyielding forces of nature.
“Then humans will come ashore and paint dreams on the dying stone”
- Joy Harjo
Stretching along the US-Mexico border between the Salton Sea and the Colorado River, Dreams on the Dying Stone documents the communities of California’s Imperial Valley. This agricultural region was born in the 20th century when fortune-seeking settlers transformed the desert into farmland by digging canals to divert water from the Colorado. The Imperial Valley now produces most of the country’s winter vegetables, consuming more of the river’s water than Arizona and Nevada combined, yet it remains the poorest county in the Western United States.
This project documents the clash between constructed agricultural landscapes and the harsh, natural beauty of the desert. It focuses on the daily lives of local communities whose existence, often dependent on agriculture, is being permanently altered by water scarcity and the climate crisis. By photographing the people whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to this changing environment, this series explores the desert not just as physical but as an imagined place—a canvas upon which humans have long projected their ideas of progress and change. Dreams on the Dying Stone chronicles the collision between human ambition and environmental reality, revealing the limits of progress when confronted with the unyielding forces of nature.