Photographs by Chad Ress, Center for Social Cohesion, Arizona State University
From Boom Fall 2013, Vol. 3, No. 3
Water is plainly vital to the life of towns and cities alike. It plays a key role in the social life of residents too.
The aqueduct intake near Big Pine in Owens Valley.
Chad Ress, a photographer and fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University, has traveled around the country to document places where people come together. In this photographic essay for Boom, Ress explored the length of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, from its headwaters near Bishop to Los Angeles, to document watery places as gathering spots for communities at either end of the system. While water is plainly vital to the life of towns and cities alike, it also plays a key role in the social life of residents.
The first day of fishing season at Crowley Lake. Twenty five miles north of Bishop, in Mono County, the lake is the largest reservoir on the Los Angeles Aqueduct system, formed by the Long Valley Dam in 1941. The lake’s fishing concession is run in cooperation with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Swim meet, Expo Center. The Los Angeles Aqueduct terminates at a filtration plant in Sylmar. From there, the water flows to a small reservoir before getting mixed into the city water distribution system, and on to customers’ taps, city drinking fountains, and pools like this.
