Cave Creek Reservoir
Image Created: 2024
Medium: Inkjet Print
NFS
While I spend much of my time exploring the abandoned history of our state, and thus am naturally drawn to older structures in the landscape, the explosive growth of our larger cities (and the urban sprawl that results from it) often means that obsoletion comes quicker than usual, and strikes closer to home than many realize.
Cave Creek Reservoir was constructed in the late 1970’s to protect northern Phoenix suburbs from catastrophic flooding as the city swallowed the desert during its population boom. As this trend continued, a newer, larger dam was required to take its place nearby, and the old reservoir became a canvas for the angst of suburban alienation in the local community.
While the roar of an occasional dirt-bike or the laugh of drunken teenager may break the reservoir’s silence, the concrete hulk mostly remains a quiet escape for decades of people whom took refuge in what remains of the natural landscape outside their manicured cul-de-sacs.
This photograph captures the remains of one such escape: beer cans -long ago drank and made into targets- foreground the ever-changing graffiti that adorns this mural, forgotten by all but the few who return to it for it’s solitude.