The Red River Basin Project presents images from intermediate and advanced photography students inspired by materials from a landscape architecture environmental planning studio focused on the region. The Red River Basin, the land that drains into the mighty Red River, extends from Lake Traverse in SD to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. It contains over 28 million acres of land, much of it formed by glacial Lake Agassiz, which ultimately contributes to issues of flooding and drought.
Photography students used site descriptions, maps, and interventions produced by the landscape architecture students as a point of departure for their own series on the Red River Basin. Each project inventoried a separate 1 million acres, from the Turtle Mountains in the west past Detroit Lakes in the east, to identify emergent programs that could be implemented basin-wide. Design proposals include basin-wide flood flow reduction strategies, alternatives to flood diversions, constructed wetlands, settlement basins, habitat restoration, cultural and educational facilities, eco-tourism and recreational facilities, and eco-system services as solutions.
In response to the landscape architecture inventories and design proposals, the photography students examined conceptions of the river, its colors and forms, and the interaction between area residents and the dynamic riparian zone. This in-direct partnership continues a semester-long interdisciplinary engagement between the two student groups.
Images from projects by Nate Bailey, Tom Brennan, Kiley Smith, Grace Olson, and Elizabeth Smith are represented.
