Western Power

Geron­i­mo
12 x 34” Epson K3 pig­ment print on Crane Port­fo­lio Rag

As we enter a new mil­len­ni­um, unlim­it­ed pow­er appears to be an inalien­able right. After all, with­out it we would not have water, light­ing, heat­ing, trans­porta­tion of con­sumer goods. Our com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tem depends upon it. Our enter­tain­ment requires it. Med­ical care demands it. This depen­den­cy is a recent phe­nom­e­non in human cul­ture. Yet, we take pow­er gen­er­a­tion for grant­ed and pay lit­tle atten­tion to how it is gen­er­at­ed and dis­trib­uted. Even less do we con­sid­er how we are to sus­tain our ever-grow­ing need for more and more ener­gy.

Hoover Dam (hydro-elec­tric), Neva­da-Ari­zona, 1999
12 x 34” Epson K3 pig­ment print on Crane Port­fo­lio Rag

In ear­li­er cen­turies, pow­er came from above. We prayed to the heav­ens for good health and the strength to make use of the mus­cle pow­er we pos­sessed. Now pow­er comes from below. We pay oth­ers to extract non-renew­able resources and to gen­er­ate elec­tric­i­ty. The pow­er plant has become a nec­es­sary medi­a­tor between out desires and their real­iza­tion, much as the cathe­dral was the inter­me­di­ary between god and man in the Mid­dle Ages.

Palo Verde Nuclear Pow­er Plant Ari­zona, 1999
12 x 34” Epson K3 pig­ment print on Crane Port­fo­lio Rag

What are the con­se­quences for future gen­er­a­tions of obtain­ing most of our ener­gy from non-renew­able resources? What options do we have to meet the grow­ing need for pow­er world­wide? As I trav­eled around the Amer­i­can West and Hawaii, I vis­it­ed gen­er­at­ing plants fueled by ura­ni­um, oil or gas, coal, water, solar, wind and geot­her­mal ener­gy. The dis­crep­an­cy is stark between the con­sid­er­able fund­ing for extract­ed resources such as coal, oil and gas or ura­ni­um and the min­i­mal atten­tion giv­en to renew­able resources.

Solar troughs, near Barstow, Cal­i­for­nia
12 x 34” Epson K3 pig­ment print on Crane Port­fo­lio Rag

With my cam­era, I want­ed to make vis­i­ble the pow­er that has changed our world for­ev­er. If we believe that the tech­nol­o­gy we depend on should be avail­able to future mil­len­nia, we need to con­sid­er well how we are to obtain the ener­gy nec­es­sary to sus­tain it.