Autumn Harry (Paiute/Navajo), fly fishing guide & geographer, at Kooyooe Pa’a Panunadu (Pyramid Lake), traditional Paiute lands
Photographed by Caitlin Berrigan
Quote for project
About Cryptocrystalline
Cryptocrystalline is a multi-year project to give long-term, observational attention to the subterranean and the geological within an overlooked geography at the core of shifting strategies of power and technogovernance: the dispossessed deserts in the Great Basin. It is an active volcanic region extending from Southern Idaho to Nevada and eastern California. A vast, geologically formed desert with the largest and most ancient artesian water reservoirs on the continent, the Great Basin has been home to humans for over 20,000 years. It has been ravaged by settler colonialism, with the Gold Rush in the 1850’s followed by contaminating tests in nuclear weapons development, drone control centers for war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently, rare earth mining, artistic earthworks, and experiments in corporate sovereignty.
