Searching for Water by Stefan Jennings Batista

The desert and ocean exist as one in the same in a sense, both seemingly endless and empty subliminal expanses. We are deeply captivated, even drawn to be confronted by their vast immensity, to gain perspective, to find truth or solace, to see death, to define our humanity. Having grown up by the sea, my childhood experience with the ocean has instilled in me a fascination with the expanse and driven my search for idealized oases.

“Searching for Water” is a photographic record that chronicles over three years of my life in transition after leaving the gulf coast for the state of New Mexico. This ongoing body of work explores the nuanced & often failing dreamscapes of an idealized American Southwest through the lens of a personal journey from a land of water to a place of desiccation and complicated history. While the title implies a pursuit of water in a literal sense, the photographs also use it as a metaphor to present deeper visual themes amidst a tenuous American dream.

Stefan Jennings Batista lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
To view more of Stefan’s work, please visit his website.