Oak Creek, along with it namesake, Oak Creek Canyon, is one of the most photographed sights in the American West. Yet it is difficult to express the essence of it, largely because it is often shrouded in flat light. The day’s warmest light, blocked by the canyon’s towering walls at both dawn and dusk, often never makes it all the way down to the waters of the creek itself. However, for this particular image, I was able to incorporate the golden light of dawn as it hit the canyon wall, by catching its reflection in the creek’s rippling water. I abstract the creek itself, shooting only an incongruously narrow channel of gilded water threading its way between the boulders that line the creek bed. Less has truly become more here.

I intend this golden reflection to work in metaphorical, rather than descriptive, terms. We are looking here at water, a resource ultimately as precious to man as the metaphorical gold that seems to drift upon its ripples. Fresh water is a dwindling resource, and I symbolize its potential scarcity by squeezing it as tightly as I can between those ancient boulders.