Today is the twenty-first-annual World Water Day, which was established, by the United Nations, to draw attention to the management and the use of fresh water. The occasion got me looking for photographers who take water as their central theme. Climate change, which has produced extremes of abundance and scarcity around the world, was a common subject, especially for documentary projects. But I was also drawn to works that highlight the beauty of water, which, as Roni Horn notes, “is full of paradox. It is ubiquitous, and yet so unfamiliar.”
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<i><a href="http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/" target="_blank">Edward Burtynsky</a>, “Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation/Suburb, Scottsdale, Arizona USA” (2011), from the series “<a href="http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/site_contents/Photographs/Water.html" target="_blank">Water</a>,” courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York</i><br>B<small>URTYNSKY</small> (from an artist statement): While trying to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding, and very thirsty, civilization, we are reshaping the Earth in colossal ways…. My hope is that these pictures will stimulate a process of thinking about something essential to our survival; something we often take for granted—until it’s gone.
