Photography
Adrian Mendoza
Written by
Staff Writer
Adrian is a man of few words. In most instances, he lets his camera do the talking. Here are the few words he allow himself when he describes
himself
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The Delta Project
Written by Focus On... Staff Writer
Adrian is a man of few words. In most instances, he lets his camera do the talking. Here are the few words he allows when he describes himself:
“I was born in Modesto, CA, the same hometown as filmmaker George Lucas.
I worked as a photojournalist for The Modesto Bee for seventeen years and for the Manteca News for six years before that. In 2006, I began a documentation project of the California Delta, the largest estuary on the Pacific side of the Western Hemisphere. Key in the photography has been chronicling from the air, cataloguing more than ten thousand images from an aerial perspective. The California Delta provides water for nearly 25 million Californians and, as population and privatization interests create a higher demand for water, climate change is diminishing the volume of water flowing through the delta.
I lived in San Francisco for two years and did periodic work for the local Huffington Post bureau and have been documenting the effects of gentrification—fueled primarily by tech start-ups—on neighborhoods, particularly the Mission District.
I'm now living in the North Bay city of Santa Rosa.”
“Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health…” When our featured artist, Adrian Mendoza reads these words on the Modesto Arch, he automatically connects the first two, water and
wealth, and begins to talk about the power, politics, and money that come into play as battles develop over Northern California water. His first encounter with this powerful theme was in the movie, Chinatown, a classic film from the 1970s starring Jack Nicholson, in which the plot revolved around the Southern California water wars at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Currently, Adrian is a photographer with the Modesto Bee and has begun to develop an interest in the land and culture of the area known as the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta, an area of land and water encompassing 1,100 square miles located at the western edge of California’s Central Valley at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. From the ground, he was fascinated with the sight of islands and waterways that sprang up around every corner. Though they demanded his attention, they often defied attempts at direct contact via the circuitous network of roads that crisscrossed the area. But, in November of 2006, Adrian took his first flight over the Delta and discovered the beauty and vastness of the area that would become a major focus for his creative talents for many years.
As a newcomer to the area, I found it odd that Modesto could claim water as an asset when my day-to-day experience was of a semi-arid landscape begging for water. But Adrian’s aerial photos of the Delta brought a
.
whole new perspective to the place in which I’ve been living and I began to understand the issues and what is at stake in the battles that spring up over the use of Delta water every few years. According to Adrian, there are over 23 million people whose life is influenced by the water in the Delta, and they all seem to want a say in how the Delta water is used, abused, and conserved. From agriculture, to ecology, to Southern California water needs, the battles for the Delta are sure to continue for years to come.
Which brings me to the role that art plays in the real world of power, politics and money. I once heard an art critic say that it was not enough for an artist to be proficient at their craft or producing pretty products, but that for an artist to be considered great, they needed to have something to say—something to show us about our lives and ourselves. And, in many ways, Adrian’s aerial photos of the Delta qualify as having a great deal to say. They are not only visually arresting, but also give perspective to the physical world in which we live, and the political issues that swirl around our lives.
We’re delighted that Adrian has allowed us to feature his aerial art and wish him well with his continued efforts to document this vital piece of land and water we call “home.”