Depictions of the abandoned ghost town of Bombay Beach, California. A few of my close friends and I had visited the abandoned town of Bombay Beach out of curiosity and I had documented parts of the town as a way to share all of the stories that lie within. Bombay beach had once been an oasis for those all across the dunes. People would come from miles around to bask in the sun next to the Salton Sea in it's glory days. The Salton Sea had been formed from the flooding of the Colorado River in 1905 and had been transformed into a tourist trap throughout the 1950's. With no way to drain any of the water from the basin and hardly any rainfall, the Salton Sea began to become infested with pesticides and increased it's salt content on the daily. This had led to the fish population within the lake to die off rapidly, and had pulled the balance of the ecosystem completely off track. People eventually had fled the area, leaving dilapidated housing units and hardly any people still using the area for residential purposes. During our travels, my friends and I came across a man who had been willing to show us some of the locations around the abandoned town that most people only get access to about once a year. Taking a chance and remaining extremely cautious, he had led us to this baby blue incredibly aged Opera House that had been scrapped into a modern aged art exhibit. Although entirely bizarre to some, the art displayed within the building had been an attraction to many across the country to visit. From flip-flops pasted to the entirety of the walls and ceiling, to depictions of animalistic and interpretive canvas', the Opera House had sure been an extremely interesting and though provoking place.
