They therefore consider water to be more than a detail in the landscape, but an essential symbol or metaphor, its use and condition bespeaking much about our values and relationship to the natural world, and more specifically to the western landscape. The archive includes varied scenes, from photographs of agricultural activities in Kansas, to dams on the Colorado River, to urban conditions in Southern California, with water put to many uses. What becomes evident when we observe the photographs is that we share a complicated and complex attitude about water. With our engineered strategies to collect and distribute water in these arid and semiarid regions, we tend to think we control and manage this resource. The photographs demonstrate, however, that water is an essential part of both the landscape and cityscape and is capable of surviving human neglect and exploitation, to prevail as a resilient, but still endangered natural resource.
Water exists independently of human needs.
Researchers and members of the public wanting to view photographs within the Water in the West archive must make an appointment at the Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.