David Campbell
After The Water
Image Created: 2011
Medium: C-Print
Edition: Open
Framed: $250
From the artist
I took this photo because I liked how the dried mud had cracked characteristically, shrinking into polygons as it baked in the sun after being washed into a large puddle from the surrounding mounds of dirt and the water had disappeared. I liked how even in the smooth, post-sunset light the harshness of the cracking was still prominent and contrasting with the even lighting. I just liked the interplay of textures — the still rough mounds of dirt in the background and the smoothed surface of the clay which the water had separated out of the mud as it filled the depression where the water accumulated, leaving the sand and silt at the bottom and the fine-grained clay on top.
As a representation of the West’s current long-term drought and water shortage, this photo has become even more relevant to me in the years since I took it.