Elliot Ross | A Question of Balance
December 18, 2025
Of all the projects I saw while jurying Critical Mass this year, Elliot Ross’s series was my favorite. A Question of Balance looks at two different communities in Utah, the Navajo Nation and Washington County, and examines their relationship to water resources.
Ross communicates multiple complex themes, and he does it with visual grace. His use of color evokes a sensory response. When looking at his images, I don’t just see the yellows and browns, I feel the heat, the dust and the wind. The opalescent blue and green tones in his images are luxurious; and my eyes drink them in like a glass of water.
I love what happens when I see the image of circular imprints left in the dirt by farming equipment next to the photograph of a running track. The blurred line between the racetrack and the subtly shifting sand is disorienting, and allows you to feel the inexorable nature of the dust. It’s as if the desert lives just beyond the lower left corner of the frame, and it is slowly creeping up to reclaim the track.
I imagine that the lines in the second image are a visual and conceptual continuation of the race track. One of the loops is pounded into the earth by our feet, and the other is etched by the orbit of our machines. They both speak to the contradictory nature of some human activities- we use resources to build tracks so we can run with no destination, just in circles. We move water great distances to soak through dry land and in the process, we dry out our wetlands.
A Question of Balance is an expansive research project, with the findings translated to us through articulate visual language. Sometimes, to grasp the enormity of an issue, facts and figures will not suffice. Ross understands this, and communicates powerfully by engaging our senses.
- Mia Dalglish
See more of Elliot Ross’s work HERE
