'The End of the Dream': Billboards depict California's drought, wildfire, housing crisis
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Drought, wildfires and lack of affordable housing are issues that continue to intensify in California. They are also themes ...
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Drought, wildfires and lack of affordable housing are issues that continue to intensify in California. They are also themes at the center of photographer Thomas Broening's billboard art project "The End of the Dream." Driving along Interstate 10 and around high-traffic streets, residents and tourists can spot some of the eight billboards in the Coachella Valley with Broening's photographs of dry land, burnt trees and squalor. Broening began taking the photos used in his art project about two years ago, unsettled by the economic disparity and homeless encampments he's witnessed in San Francisco, and also the raging wildfires near the city in September 2020, in which "the sun didn't come out for a day," he said.