Touched Landscapes: Americans’ changing perceptions and interactions with the West

Abstract

In 1854, the United States and Mexico finalized the Gadsden Purchase, in which the U.S. purchased a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico which later became Arizona and New Mexico—today’s “Southwest.” Before and since then, the Southwest has undergone major changes in landscape, demographics of its population, culture, beliefs and land uses. Phoebe Zea’s Touched Landscapes explores the multitudes of and reasons for such changes within this American region. The project also explores the people who reside within the Southwest, and their shifting beliefs about the land, as well as the ways in which they have in the past, and continue to, interact with and utilize the vast landscapes of Arizona and New Mexico. Touched Landscapes focuses on Southwesterners’, as well as generalized Americans’, sense of ‘place’ within the given landscape, and how interactions with various landscapes can affect our sense of belonging to the land. The photographs in this project seek to emphasize the uses of the landscape, the people within, and the diversity of cultures and narratives shared among the region.