Mulholland’s Gold: Unveiling the Hidden Water Legacy of Southern California
From Debilitation To Inception
The idea for Mulholland’s Gold had its genesis after a debilitating medical condition left me bedridden for three months during which my above average consumption of fresh water helped me overcome my condition and avoid a long term dependency on prescription medication. During these three months I began to contemplate and became fascinated by where, how and why water even managed to exist in this semi-arid city of Los Angeles, in which I lived between 2011 and 2013. I was particularly drawn to human intervention and it’s collective impact within the natural landscape that connected us to water in our lives.
Along with clean air, food and shelter, fresh water is a global necessity for all human beings as well as plants, animals and marine life since we are dependent on them for our basic survival. Fresh water is a key component in California’s major industrial practices such as mining for ores and minerals, oil and gas extraction and production, agricultural and livestock production and processing. These practices yield the much needed building blocks not only in the form of food, but also as products we take for granted like mobile communication and computer devices, building construction materials, automotive fuel and parts. Through a network of hydrological projects such as aqueducts, dams and reservoirs, fresh water has enabled the production of electricity throughout California.
Around the world, fresh water is also used in fire extinguishing, nuclear energy processes, for washing, recreation, as a means of transportation and even as a religious symbol.
Exploring The California Water Chain
For six weeks, I conducted a series of excursions by road to various locations that my research led me to survey. Several of these locations either were restricted, inaccessible, hazardous or just so vast that they rendered views that were incomprehensible or obscure, from the ground-level vantage points I had chosen to navigate. With each step I became increasingly intrigued by water in these unfamiliar landscapes that I could not, or was not allowed, to see or experience, in contrast to my experiences with water present in the familiar landscape such as in a giant supermarket, in the hands of firefighters extinguishing a blaze or being dispensed from a vending machines in corporate offices.
California being the third largest state in the United States with an area of roughly 160,000 square miles, its vast and unique terrain provided a photographic challenge that was eventually met with my decision to photograph from the air. Aerial photography offered me an unrestrained visual description even in the most restricted of airspaces in which I found myself working in. It also forced me to readjust my point of view and thought process in terms of how the Californian landscapes have been manipulated.
Water is the underlying theme in each photographic series. My focus and idea begins and ends with Los Angeles as the closest model in proximity whose politics, controversy, urban expansion, ingenuity, economics, consumerism, development, growth and dependency have been so deeply mired in water, that water to Los Angeles was once considered by many to be more valuable than any other commodity.
The first source of fresh water came from the Los Angeles River. It’s flow, as unpredictable as the rains that fell in the semi-arid region, sustained the Gabrielino native Indians and later irrigated farmlands of Los Angeles which the Spanish settlers established with the help of the Gabrielinos. Following California’s annexation by the United States, Los Angeles and its growing population went from a pueblo to farmlands to an expanding metropolis with the Los Angeles River barely able to cope with the demand for fresh water.
Manifest Destiny
The full effect of the American Industrial Revolution together with America’s belief of Manifest Destiny had finally reached California by the mid-19th century and brought with it a deluge of people that would exploit fresh water to initiate, develop, practice and advance the industries of Agriculture, Cattle Ranching, Mining and Oil exploration throughout the state. The resulting industrial production went into sustaining the growing physiological and material needs of the developing towns and cities, but these needs would continue to grow as more and more people were attracted to the American West.
At the turn of the 20th century the population of Los Angeles could no longer be sustained by the Los Angeles River, which by then had become the city’s dumping ground. With no other immediate source in sight to meet the insatiable demand for fresh water, a radical idea was proposed by Fred Eaton, a former Mayor of Los Angeles, to mitigate this demand.
This idea eventually took shape when William Mulholland, a former ditch digger turned head of the Los Angeles City Water Company, spearheaded one of the most ambitious and desperate water projects. By 1913 a controversial 223-mile long liquid highway, known as the Los Angeles Aqueduct was built. It established the city’s lifeline and ensured its future expansion by diverting water from the Owens River located in the Northeastern side of the Sierra mountains; the industrialization of water had begun. A second and third aqueduct that diverted water from the California Delta and the Colorado River was achieved later. These conduits re-contextualized the meaning of a natural system as they transported water to people and industry across Southern California for the past 100 years.
Manipulating Landscapes
The Mulholland’s Gold project follows the water chain that evidence the large-scale manipulation, treatment and destruction of the natural terrain posited as signs of progress and technological achievements for the greater good of society. The photographs do not tell the entire story of the landscapes nor do they posses any quantitative standards by which to add up the negative value of fresh water consumed, the toxicity released into the air and groundwater, or the loss of fresh water due to evaporation and outdated infrastructure.
On a global level, California and the United States must not underestimate the population in other countries who have developed and improved their economies that are growing along with their expectations, needs and desire to emulate the Western lifestyle and problems that go with it. Increases in global pollution by consumers and industries promotes the scarcity of fresh water as evidenced by changes in sea levels, snowpacks and river flows and have long been anticipated and measured as incrementing at a precipitous rate. Laws and regulations have been proposed and, in some cases, imposed upon both consumers and industry in an effort towards responsible use.
However these laws and regulations may be rendered futile by the lure of increasing profitability, the dependence of a consumer society and cognitive dissonance – the rationalization and justification of a wasteful lifestyle to relieve the consumers of their responsibility towards nature.
Water For A Modernized World
By 2050 the population of the world is expected to reach 10 billion which makes the growth of cities seem inexorable. Modernization of the world may attain new heights some of which will be directed towards prolonging an individuals lifespan and improved lifestyle. The demand for freshwater, food and other basic necessities to maintain this lifestyle will continue to increase and put further pressure on the natural resources. The patience with nature to recycle and restore its sources of freshwater may diminish.
It is also estimated that by then, the population of the Los Angeles county will reach 13 million, while the whole of California will grow from 38 million to 60 million; the California water system was designed to help sustain a population of 16 million.