Ketchum & Hailey, ID — Water.
It has shaped the landscape of the American West and it shapes the way we live today.
Source/Resource: Ranching and Water in the West, on view from September 17 through November 12 at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Hailey, pairs early 20th-century photos from the archives of the Idaho State Historical Society with contemporary photos by Benjamin Ditto of western ranches and ranchers.
“Idaho farmers and ranchers have been managing water in order to sustain their livelihoods since the mid 1800s,” says Courtney Gilbert, The Center’s Curator of Visual Arts. “The historical photos show everything from snow collection fences and water wheels to opening celebrations of different dams and canals to men digging irrigation trenches.”
Ditto’s color photographs, taken from a portfolio of images he made starting in 2007, explore water usage in the 21st century. Prompted by the news that the Southern Nevada Water Authority was planning to pipe water from the aquifer under the Great Basin, in northern Nevada and Utah, to Las Vegas, Ditto began to travel through the Snake Valley with camera in hand. His photographs capture a way of life that has changed little over the last hundred years—and also the challenges farmers and ranchers face in our arid environment.
An adventurer whose passion for the outdoors and for photography has taken him from Greenland to Peru, Ditto says he is interested “in the symbiotic relationship that occurs as humans alter the environment to suit their needs and the extent to which the landscape shapes the lives and development of its inhabitants. To this end, I photograph wetlands, springs, residents who rely on this resource for their livelihood, and any indication of interaction between the two.” To see more of his photographs, visit www.bendittophoto.com.
Gallery hours in Hailey are 2–6 pm Wednesday—stop by after school or work! Admission is free.
Source/Resource: Ranching and Water in the West is part of a larger multidisciplinary project, titled Water, which also includes a visual art exhibition in Ketchum and lectures, a panel discussion, films, classes, a musical performance and in-school artist residencies all exploring the beauty, power and transformational qualities of water.
Full details on the project and all Sun Valley Center for the Arts programs are available at www.sunvalleycenter.org.