T-shirt Spirol Jetty

Unlike anything else, this is a rare aerial photograph of Robert Smithson's monumental earthwork “Spiral Jetty”, seen in red. The high salt content at the north arm of the Great Salt Lake allows growth of alga Dunaliella Salina, and the bacteria it releases, causes the natural phenomenon of the distinctive wine red color. The high salt content in the lake also turns the black basalt rock white, as seen in this photograph, which I took at 10:39 a.m. on July 19, 2003, from a small plane. I photographed Spiral Jetty recently with the lake level very low, it is now almost a mile from the water's edge. The colors of “Spiral Jetty” are always changing with the rise and fall of the lake level. We may never see the lake reach this earthwork again in our lifetime which makes this a very unique and historic photograph. Because the current drought has completely dried up many of the springs and water sources that drain into the Great Salt Lake.