dear jas,
thinking that the first seemingly unrelated photos, after the illustrations, suggest something about what would be at stake if the dam actually collapsed… not literally, but symbolically. others for context and setting. the shear size of the lake is mind-blowing when you consider that it’s manmade. my camera sometimes works well, other times not… it’s not simply the photographer! well, i should have changed the ISO sometimes…
woke this morning to jeffrey calling to ask if i wanted to go to the orville dam to help him film the near-catastrophe unfolding there. this dam is the highest in the US. higher than the golden gate bride, higher than the washington monument, and made solely of earth… it created one of the largest reservoirs on the planet. orville lake became the poster child image of california’s more than 5 years drought, internationally. but with the recent rains, it filled up again, and has now become the poster child of a near catastrophe. the dam almost broke. it is now a major moment in US history. trump has said absolutely nothing about it.even though almost 200,ooo people were evacuated because of the possibility the dam would break… jeffrey and i went there today, and drove through ghost towns. it’s definitely time to admit that former ‘1st world’ nations are now on par with so called ‘3rd world’ ones. the US is becoming Russia. and Russian is becoming the US…. that too has been inevitable since the cold war.
we were totally soaked. but on the way back stopped in davis for a dinner of dumplings. will have to explain what/where davis is. brief version: a UC college town near sacramento.
california is truly one of the most beautiful places on the planet….
‘down stream’, or ‘down dam’…. hills with old oaks.
farmland with vast groves of nut trees – these are probably almonds.
the lake behind the dam at a very high level , that yesterday was breached. so this pic shows just how close the lake water is to the top of the dam.
– just imagine the weight of all that water pressing against the dam…
the landscape above the man-made lake, safe from flooding
madrone trees in the brilliant light
old oaks and a rock
the ant-like helicopter working to pick up huge bags of stone to drop into the lake to plug the hole in the dam, with a surprising animist spot…
early rising
the spillway in the dam that has been significantly damaged
jeffrey filming/photographing
the state’s fear
on the highway home after a long day
a notebook of epic reflections by mark bartlett 