Tucson, Arizona (2015)
These stones line the bottom of an Arizona riverbed, dry for most of the year. During the rainy season and after snow melt, water collects from the mountains to the north and flows to the Tucson valley, pushing large rocks along with it and grinding them into sand under its rushing force.
The river creates a jumbled geological timeline, as old, quartz-studded boulders from one era join up with rust-brown hematite from a more recent epoch. The stones travel together downstream, clattering against logs caught in the flood and sliding along slick, mossy rock faces. Standing in the sandy ravine, I wonder: as I navigate my own river, what stones have I carried in my pockets for a long time, and what stones am I just now gathering up? What patterns do their stripes and textures create? Which stones are weathered and smooth, and which still bear sharp edges?
