Projects:
(Im)migrant Perspectives
Immigration has been a highly contested topic throughout U.S. history. While the U.S. has been framed as a country of immigrants, the experiences of different groups and individuals is often not accounted for in the dominant public discourse surrounding immigration. This project focuses on different (im)migrant groups and individuals in the Phoenix metropolitan area to get their (im)migrant story ... [more]
Artifacts
These various objects were found in the bed of the Salt River located in Mesa, AZ just east of interstate 101 and north of interstate 202. Mainly populated by wildlife and transients, this area has become both a refuge and a dumping ground. Abandoned tents, homemade fire pits, and piles of debris are found amongst Cottonwood trees and wetland grasses. While photographing around the Salt River w ... [more]
Buckeye
An in-depth document of a small, rural town 30 miles west of Phoenix as it undergoes the change from a small farming town to a Phoenix suburb.
Flight Paths
Centrally located in the heart of the city, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the ninth busiest airports in the united states. With a $90 million dollar daily economic impact, some 1,200 aircraft fly through the airspace above the Phoenix suburbs on any given day.
Historias en la Camioneta
I grew up on the U.S. Mexico border, and my family and I have used a shuttle
service since I was as child to migrate through the landscape to and from
larger metropolitan cities such as Los Angeles and Phoenix. When I think
about my earliest memories on the shuttle bus, I see my mother immersed in
conversations with passengers for hours at a time. As an adult, I find[more]
Home Tour
Home, it would seem, should increasingly embody the sociality, multiplicity, and fluidity of the contemporary moment. Mobility reigns. Personal information is shared at an excessive, if not alarming rate. We turn to the Real Housewives of somewhere to see how other people live. The classic divide, homemaking and paid work, has dissolved into the rhythmic continuum of multi-tasking. Yet, when it co ... [more]
Light Rail
Months before the Valley Metro Light Rail opened for travel in December 2008, Ryan Heckel photographed every undeveloped lot along its path with an interest in understanding the change and impact of its construction. Now, with over a million passengers per month in 2010, and planned expansion over the next two decades, we can expect to watch a continuously changing face of the Valley. Over the pas ... [more]
Memory of Water
The Salt River Project follows the Salt River from the recreation areas East of Phoenix out to the Gillespie Dam West of Phoenix. It is the story of an urban desert river.
The project begins with the conceptual framework provided by high water marks. Clumps of dirt, plastic bags and plant growth five feet up in trees serve as a reminder that the dry riverbed is not dead, but only do ... [more]
On Phoenix From Above
Aerial Photography of the greater Phoenix valley. Support for this project was provided by the Metro Light Rail Project and published in, City By Design: Phoenix: An Architectural Perspective of the Greater Phoenix Valley, 2009.
Phoenix covers more than 517 square miles and ranks as the fifth largest city in the country with a population of over 1.5 million people. It has continued ... [more]
One Day at a Time
We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from sh ... [more]
Phoenix Palms
I first began making these photographs in response to what I saw each morning out the windows of a moving light-rail train. Between Mesa and Tempe the track runs along a dilapidated Apache Boulevard. Vacant lots and abandoned motels clutter the street, but ultimately it was the palms that caught my eye.
There is no shortage of palm trees in Phoenix. Here, palms are more prolifi ... [more]
Rephotographs
The sites of historic photographs of the Phoenix Metropolitan area have been relocated and the views repeated (rephotographed), sometimes on several occasions. New sites have also been created for the purpose of rephotography at a later date.
The Backyard
Many of us have a particular space in which we touch nature. We are not always conscious of how to use the space in any other way than how it was appropriated when we began using the space. Often times the backyard, which is commonly this space for most, gets nothing more than a grass cutting and possibly some weeding but most often it’s the only consideration we give it. How to use this space ... [more]