As a European living in the San Francisco area, I have always been fascinated by the California Central Valley. It is a place where the brutal nature of the Californian climate is revealed - far from the postcard view - through extreme droughts, heat, and floods, which give unique colors to the place - arid golden hills contrasting with massive green open fields and dark blue skies filled with yellowish and brownish particles. It is highly contrasted, widly intriguing, and truly beautiful. 

 

The place offers a condensed version of the history of California, a mix of rapid expansion, abundant and poorly regulated profit, and chaotic development. The Central Valley has gone from a semi-desert state to one of the most productive lands in the world in less than 180 years. It now produces more than half of the United States' fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Half! Rivers and snowmelt have been stolen through huge canals and dams, millions of fruit trees have been planted, miles of highways have been built (see my other series "Adopt a Highway - Driving Down Interstate 5 in Central California"), the air has been filled with particles, the soil with pesticides, and aquifers have been pumped to the point of no return, where the earth is literaly sinking. Fortunes have been made, while half the population of the Central Valley, among the most diverse in the state, still lives in poverty.

 

This place also offers a glimpse into our future. This already stressed land is on the verge of collapse. Wells dry up. The ground sinks. Rivers die. A thick, brown and dangerous dust darkens the sky. The temperature is projected to increase by 5 degrees by midcentury. Will the desert prevail? Will innovation keep the Central Valley from drying up, flooding, sinking, burning, vanishing? What capitalists have conquered, transformed, and used, will they save it once it is less profitable? The fate of this valley is a metaphor for our collective destiny.

 

I like to wander the hills, the highways, the backroads with my Rolleiflex cameras, and I record the fast pace of things on film. For a fraction of second, they freeze change. They stuck light on paper for us to start to see, and, soon, to remember. 

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This project has been published online by the art magazine Dodho (Nov 2022)