“A great example of how pictures are made and not just found.”
Las Vegas-based photographer John Locher has seen no shortage of drought in his years covering a major chunk of the Southwest desert. But this year felt different, particularly when it came to Lake Mead, a popular tourist destination and important source of water, where levels have plummeted.
News organizations across the West have been covering the drought, so Locher wanted to do something that went beyond the obvious images. Over the course of several weeks, he made repeat visits to the sprawling lake, talking to people, exploring different areas and running down visual leads he found posted on YouTube and other social media sites.
Bobby Rhinebolt, right, and Victor Perez sit near a formerly sunken boat, now well above the receding water line at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., June 22, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
Misha McBride looks at a formerly sunken boat, now on dry, cracked lakebed hundreds of feet from what is now the shoreline of Lake Mead, near Boulder City, Nev., May 9, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
A ring of light mineral deposits shows the decades-old high-water mark of Lake Mead near water intakes on the Arizona side of Hoover Dam, June 26, 2022. The largest U.S. reservoir is now under 30 percent of capacity, the level dropping 170 feet (52 meters) since reaching its high-water mark in 1983.
AP Photo / John Locher
Dead and desiccated fish arranged by a visitor stick out of cracked earth at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., June 28, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
A coyote walks across dry land that was once covered by the waters of Lake Mead near Hemenway Harbor at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, Nev., July 4, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
A mud-encrusted teddy bear sits in a formerly sunken boat at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, near Boulder City, Nev., June 22, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
The stern of a formerly sunken boat sits on cracked earth hundreds of feet from the shoreline of Lake Mead, near Boulder City, Nev., May 10, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
A formerly sunken boat sits upright with its stern stuck in the mud along the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, near Boulder City, Nev., June 10, 2022. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., was created by the Hoover Dam.
AP Photo / John Locher
A sign marks the water line from 2002 near Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., July 9, 2022. The largest U.S. reservoir has shrunken to a record low amid a punishing drought and the demands of 40 million people in seven states who are sucking the Colorado River dry.
AP Photo / John Locher
Craig Miller sits in his stranded houseboat at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., June 23, 2022. Miller had been living on the stranded boat for more than two weeks after engine trouble and falling lake levels beached the boat above water level.
AP Photo / John Locher
Craig Miller hauls a hose while trying to free his stranded houseboat at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, near Boulder City, Nev., June 23, 2022.
AP Photo / John Locher
Craig Miller smokes a cigarette beside his stranded houseboat at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., June 23, 2022. Miller had been living on the stranded boat for more than two weeks after engine trouble and falling lake levels left the boat beached above water level.
AP Photo / John Locher
Little by little, a theme began to emerge: The receding body of water — a reservoir created by the Hoover Dam — had effectively exposed a graveyard, not just of sunken or stranded boats, but also of wildlife. Dead and desiccated fish, some of which a visitor had arranged in the cracks of the dried-out lakebed, stood as a sort of epitaph. One unfortunate boater spent three weeks on his houseboat going nowhere — he was beached on dry land.
Locher captured all of this, creating a visual essay that conveyed both the life of the people and the death of the lake and its habitat. He worked with interim West news director Stephanie Mullen and climate photo editor Alyssa Goodman on the editing and presentation, and with Los Angeles-based reporter Brian Melley for help drafting the text.
The result was a package used widely and prominently by AP members and customers across the country. Of note, several news outlets built their own presentations with AP’s content. Gizmodo used the work with this headline: “Shocking Photos Show Lake Mead's Historically Low Water Levels.” The Boston Globe’s gallery bore this headline: “Withering drought turns Lake Mead into a shriveling graveyard.” And the Arizona Republic, which covers Lake Mead robustly as part of its territory, wrote this: “Boat graveyard surfaces at Lake Mead as water levels continue to drop.”
The Best of the Week judges were moved as well. One judge was “blown away” by the visual impact. Others were impressed by Locher’s use of social media to find unique scenes in a place so close to home, and the many return trips he made to the lake to capture just the right light. One judge summed it up: “This is a great example of how pictures are made and not just found.”
For persistence, creativity and shoe-leather reporting to reveal in striking images the precipitous decline of Lake Mead, Locher earns AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
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