Overflowing Development

”What Lies Beneath” is a piece from Chris' “Nature Reclaimed” project, which explores the tensions inherent in classically beautiful landscapes existing in the context of man’s land development. The project includes reclaimed quarries, brownfields, factories, recreated wetlands, man made reservoirs, and the like, photographed with traditional landscape aesthetics. It exists in the context of ying/yang dynamics between ecological conservation and earth stewardship vs. the practicality of civilization's needs and usage of natural resources.

This particular photo was made at the very upstream edge of a wetlands dam. Timing and trying to regulate the cascading effects of excess water (in this moment at least) from a series of dammed lakes and wetlands can be tricky for the humans trying to control their nature. In this case, this dam’s flood gates had been opened fully, yet the waters kept rising, until they crested and started overflowing the top of the dam. The water overcame the foliage below, the sole remnant being this trio of grass periscopes. The stillness of the scene belies the swollen power and volume of overwhelming water, oblivious to the irony, that in the face of “extreme drought conditions ... the governor declared 59% of counties as crop disaster areas.” Will we hear, understand, and heed the calls?