Diane Tuft is a photographer currently based in New York City. Tuft has always been fascinated by how environmental factors shape the Earth’s landscape, and capturing this through her camera has been a guiding principle in her work. In her photography series titled Entropy, Tuft explores how many areas of the Great Salt Lake are visually changing and rapidly drying. This series questions what may happen locally and globally if the lake soon dries up.

Entropy is “a measure of disorder within a system,” which can increase if left unchecked. In the case of climate change, greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, creating increasingly unpredictable patterns and extreme weather events within the Earth’s climate system. Diane Tuft’s photographs explore the destructive impact these forces have had on the Utah region: specifically, the demise of the Great Salt Lake and the ecosystem it supports. The saturated colors, visible cracks, and crystalline textures found in this body of work are born from the lack of moisture making its way to the lake. Although the lake’s level fluctuates from year to year, it reached an all-time low in 2022 with overuse of water resources and climate change serving as critical factors in its disappearance. Tuft states, “Entropy illustrates the ecological changes that I witnessed in the Great Salt Lake. Many areas of the lake are rapidly drying, caused by evaporation and lack of water replenishment. Underground petroleum is emerging to mix with the lake’s waters, and microbialites are calcifying and ceasing to provide nourishment for the lake’s ecosystem. It is apparent that climate change and global warming are wreaking havoc on the Great Salt Lake, which translates visually to a wonderland of beauty born of tragic consequences.”