The Salton Sea

Living in a capitalist economy that exerts its dominance over nature on a regular basis, the Salton Sea has often been a personal refuge for me as a place that shirked land development attempts. The sea was formed in 1905 after an attempt to divert the Colorado River failed, causing one of the dams to break transfiguring the Salton Sink into the Salton Sea. Later in the 1920s as capitalism and the desire for recreational vacation spots grew, business opportunists began to develop the area into a tourist attraction marring its shore with resorts, marinas and other tourist attractions. The area became a profitable development and during the next few years more people visited the Salton Sea than visited Yosemite. In the 1950s and 60s, however, the sea flooded again, reclaiming itself by destroying the buildings clustered around its shore. This, coupled with a large outbreak of bird botulism, established the Salton Sea as an undesirable location for a tourist market. Since then the sea has been unsuccessful in attracting any consumer-driven tourism and has become a home and sanctuary for a variety of “desert dwellers” that find solace in experiencing what the sea naturally offers.

As a photographer, I have found the imagery of the Salton Sea to be undeniably captivating and awe-inspiring. In this way, it is inspiration to me to view the history of the Sea as nature’s ability to cleanse itself of the consumer pollution our society imposes on its natural resources. With this in mind, each of my photographs becomes a personal representation of the Sea’s triumph over what was built on it.

Since I made these photographs the sea has gone on receding, well past the buildings in them, and the bed it has left behind has become a problem for the people who have made their home along its shore. Another imposition is now taking shape. Beneath the southern end of the sea lies one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, and the shoreline it has abandoned is being planned as an industrial site again — this time not for tourism but for extraction. How that plays out remains to be seen.

Photographed 2004–2012.

Gutted timber-framed store building with collapsing roof behind a field of flattened dry reeds under heavy cloud — Bombay Beach General Store

Burnt and flattened caravan shell on cracked salt flats, a torn car seat lying in the foreground — Salton Sea Trailer 2

Bare dead branches breaking the surface of still pale water, long exposure flattening lake and sky together — Salton Sea Tree

Single tyre half-submerged in glassy shallow water, salt-crusted spit and distant mountains beyond, streaked cloud — Salton Sea Tire

Leaning wooden tower carrying a cylindrical water tank on bare cracked ground beneath dark massed cloud — Bombay Beach Water Tower

Wrecked caravan lit alone at night against total darkness, its shell and the ground around it glowing — Boombay Beach Trailer

Rusted caravan with open doorway and broken windows sunk into a crusted salt flat scattered with debris — Salton Sea Trailer 1

Broken posts and a leaning telephone pole rising from motionless flooded ground, reflections held by long exposure — Telephone Poles

Reed-covered duck blind standing far out on flat shallow water above a foreground of cracked mud — Duck Blind

Painted adobe cave interior with sculpted tree trunks, a truck door reading Jesus loves you, and light streaks — Insidesalvationmountain Niland, CA

Painted adobe hillside with LOVE lettering and a cross on its summit, desert ground in the foreground — Salvation Mountain Niland, CA

Nine pale broken posts standing in glassy dark water, low mountain ridge and streaked cloud beyond — Salton Posts

Slender dead sapling rising from smoothed water, break in the cloud glowing behind it, dark vignetted edges — Salton Sea Twig

Line of birds flying across a pale sky above a curving row of broken pilings in glassy water — Bird Migration

Empty graffiti-covered swimming pool behind chain-link fence beside a shoreline, dead palm tree and pilings in still water — Hotel Pool

Bare dead tree and salt-crusted mounds mirrored in glassy shallow water beneath a mackerel sky of rippled cloud — Salton Sea

Two bare dead trees standing alone on a pale flat desert plain with faint mountains on the hazy horizon — Salton Trees

Burnt-out gutted van on sandy ground with scattered timber pallets, desert scrub and streaked cirrus cloud overhead — Salton Sea Van 1

Row of salt-encrusted timber pilings on a gravel shore, flat sea behind and heavy layered cloud above — Salton Sea Posts

Collapsing wooden jetty leaning into flat water from a stony shore, long exposure smoothing the sea and streaking cloud — Salton Sea Dock

Salt-crusted rocks in the foreground and bare drowned trees reflected in motionless shallow water under pale sky — Salton Sea Jetty