SALT LAKE CITY — It is a possibility that’s easy to ignore – the fact that the Great Salt Lake could dry up. But photographer Nick Pedersen is trying to put it right in front of Utahns — on a couple of billboards.
With a grant from Wake the Lake, an arts initiative sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Salt Lake City Arts, he’s created two billboards at 870 South and 900 West showing a thriving Great Salt Lake and a lake that’s evaporated.
Pedersen creates imaginary hyper-realistic photomontages addressing environmental issues. He’s made a series of images showing landscapes reclaimed by nature and a series of recognizable city scenes halfway underwater because of a rising sea levels.
“The images are kind of colorful and over the top,” he said. “But I really like this phrase amusement enlightens.”…