Join the conversation
Subcribe to comment rss feedEndangered and Disappearing Arid Land Springs of North America
Bremner Benedict
Benedict’s projects center on the role that landscape plays in the human experience. Her focus is on unrecognized, under-valued yet important elements of the natural world. Her earlier projects, range from the role of landscape in creating memory - Distant Places; to electrical towers interruption of the American Western landscape - Gridlines; to a child’s imaginary play in natural history dioramas - Field Trip, Re-Imagining Eden; Benedict’s recent work - Hidden Waters combines art and science to envision the impacts of climate change and overuse on endangered arid-land springs in the American West.
Man-made water exploration, Borehole Springs, Mojave Desert, Tecopa, CA
As a child, I was fascinated by a photograph of my grandmother standing next to a Saguaro cactus. Little did I know it would become a touchstone of my future. Coming from tree-crowded New England, the first time I stepped off the plane in Arizona, I instantly felt at home, captivated by the brilliancy of the light and the range of atmospheric colored hues. I found the open landscape exhilarating.
My parents travelled overseas every year. When they returned, my dad would show me endless slideshows of everything he saw on the trip. At one point he let me use his camera, I loved the immediacy of photography. Eventually, photography became a way for me to understand and make sense of the world.
-
- Man-made water exploration, Borehole Springs, Mojave Desert, Tecopa, CA
-
- Stop on the Tohono O’odham nation’s Sacred Salt Pilgrimage Trail at 16,000-year-old Quitobaquito Springs, US/Mexico Border, Sonoran Desert, AZ
-
- Heavily altered pool at O’odham Tribe’s sacred spring site threatened by gold mining, Quitovac Springs, Sonoran Desert, Sonora, Mexico
-
- Underground Amargosa River ends at Badwater Basin Spring, Death Valley, Mojave Desert, CA
-
- Metal pipe from abandoned trading post Unnamed Spring, Colorado Plateau, Dine Nation, AZ
-
- Saved from becoming a 20,000-unit subdivision in the largest remaining oasis in Mojave Desert, Longstreet Springs, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Mojave Desert, NV
-
- Desert varnish at Amargosa Spring #4, Mojave Desert, CA
-
- Barbed wire protective fence, Blue Hole Cienega at dawn, Chihuahua Desert, NM
-
- Water-soaked field, 7J Ranch Springs #4 & #7
-
- Wild burro standing in Rabbit Brush, hoof-trampled, Wild Burro Seep, Oasis Valley, Mojave Desert, NV
-
- Wood Beam from geothermal mine, Pinto East Hot Springs, Black Rock Desert, Great Basin, NV
-
- Abandoned livestock watering trough with earth crack on Hole-in-the-Wall Mormon Trail, Liston Seep, Colorado Plateau, UT
-
- Popular with scuba divers a deep-water sinkhole cenote fed by underground springs, Devil’s Inkwell, Bottomless Lakes State Park, Chihuahuan Desert, NM
