GILLES COMPAIN

THE SALTON SEA, MIRAGE OF THE CALIFORNIAN DREAM. 

 

An ecological time bomb for California. Arrogant dream that nature conforms to what you want.

As for my Salvation Mountain photographs, i was interested & touched to discover an other vision of America through these communities surviving around the Salton Sea. Very sensitive about ecology & environmental issues, I've decided to spend time to photograph the communities and understand the Salton Sea history. About 60 kilometers north of the California-Mexico border lies the Salton Sea.

An artificial lake that was created following the flooding of the Colorado River in the early 20th century during the construction of dikes to develop agriculture. In the 1950s, Salton sea was a popular destination attracting Hollywood stars and celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys...

Though the lake was once a popular entertainment spot, water contamination and decades of drought have contributed to a collapse of its ecosystem and given rise to ghost towns.

More recently, evaporating water created high concentrations of toxic particulates, as phosphate, arsenic, cadmium, nitrates...rendering the sea unsafe for swimming, and killing off many of the fishes and migratory birds. This gradual collapse continued through the last decade. 

In this landscape of apocalypse, whiteness and silence, a community of artists has found inspiration by settling on site, creating works of art to raise public awareness of Salton Sea's cause in order to avoid its loss.

These incongruous artistic creations are to show the absurdity of our modern existence.