With a landscape dominated by nature's extremes -- the tallest mountain in the continental U.S., Mount Whitney, at the edge of Sequoia National Park and Death Valley National Park, home to the lowest point in North America -- Inyo County contains all the elements that made the West a tourist attraction at the turn of the 20th Century. It has been the subject of inquiry for many visual artists and photographers seeking to define and understand the West: High peaks, vast valleys and deserts, spectacular waterfalls. It is also the reason why Inyo County has been the historic homeland of a handful of Native American communities who have embraced the landscape for generations.

Allured by the sculptural outdoors, immigrants from the east and the south moved west, creating an urban population explosion in Southern California. As Los Angeles grew, water from the Owens River was diverted to its aqueduct and the valley was purchased by the DWP, changing the environmental balance of the area forever. Today, multi-disciplinary artists such as Lauren Bon (to name a few) are mining the valley in search of creative answers to this shift.