David Maisel

David Maisel (USA, 1961) studied at

Princeton and Harvard and now lives in the

San Francisco area. He has been exhibiting

in the USA for several years and has published

four books: The Lake Project (2004),

Oblivion (2006), Cascade Effect (2008) and

Library of Dust (2008). His latest book,

History’s Shadow, will be published in autumn

2010. In his photos Maisel documents

the impact of human activity on natural

systems. His work is included in more

than twenty major USA collections.

In The Lake Project Maisel presents his

photographs of California’s Owens Lake.

In the early twentieth century Owens Lake

supplied Los Angeles with water via an

aqueduct. Within thirteen years the once

vast lake dried up and all that was left was

a mineral-rich, but barren and arid plain.

These high mineral concentrations now

colour Owens Lake in variegated shades

of purple, red and pink. The microscopic

dust particles blown up into the air during

storms form a carcinogenic cloud. The

lake has become a negation of itself, as its

appearance is now determined by the absence

of water. It is both a scene of savage

beauty and an alarming indictment of a

manmade natural disaster.