Photographer points camera at drying rivers to highlight threat

Pete McBride traced the Colorado River to incite people to conserve.

Pete McBride hopes that by pointing his camera lens at rivers around the world, he’ll inspire people to do something to help save the planet’s endangered waterways.

“I’ve seen the Colorado River run dry,” McBride says. “I’ve seen portions of the Ganges run dry. I’ve seen the Nile run dry, and of course the Rio Grande runs dry.”

We caught up with the 46-yearold photographer and documentary filmmaker recently, after he spoke at the Austin Conservation Luncheon, a fundraiser for the Nature Conservancy of Texas.

McBride, who grew up in Colorado, launched a career as an adventure travel photojournalist in the mid-1990s, documenting expeditions and culture around the world for a decade. He traveled to Mount Everest, Antarctica and other points around the globe on assignment for the National Geographic Society, Outside, the Nature Conservancy, Smithsonian and other publications.

But the work burned him out, and he grew tired of getting guns pointed at him. Ten years ago he decided to aim his camera at something closer to home — the Colorado River (the one that runs through the Grand Canyon, not Austin) that snaked through his own backyard in a greenishblue, then muddy brown ribbon.

“Rivers are highways to human stories,” he says.

With the help of his father, a bush pilot, he photographed the river by air, river and trail, tracing it for 1,500 miles from its source to the delta where it no longer flowed into the ocean. The Colorado River provides water to more than 30 million people.

“I was pretty alarmed when I got to the border and it vanished,” McBride says. “We’ve run it dry, we killed it, and Britney Spears gets more coverage.”

The resulting coffee table book was published in 2011 and has been reprinted five times. He also made three award-winning short documentaries and hosted a PBS television program about the river. McBride hopes those projects remind people that water is limited, precious and scarce.

“The Colorado is symbolic of all rivers,” he says. “People need to get engaged and pay attention. People need to realize water doesn’t come from the tap.”

He’s traced other rivers, too, pointing out pollution and environmental damage but casting it

CONTRIBUTED BY PETE MCBRIDE Photographer Pete McBride took this photo of the Little Colorado River where it merges with the Colorado River while documenting the river as it flows toward the border.