AW4A Photo Contest

“What is my relationship to water?”

Submissions answered the big question, “what is my relationship to water?” Our network submitted across themes of water, nature, social infrastructure, WASH, community, and art.

Find our top three voted winners and browse the complete gallery of photos showcasing our relationship to water.

Please do not reproduce images, unless including photographer credit. Photographer retains ownership of their photograph(s) with AW4A Network granted permission for reproduction.

Top Voted Submissions

Níłtsą́ bikąʼ

Amber Renee Archie

2022 - Blanding City Reservoirs, Blanding, Utah

Male Rain; one of two interwoven forces that, in balance with female rain, create health, harmony, and beauty.

 

Our Words Reach the Skies

Mylo Brooks

2025 - Wa:k Hikdan and Patagonia, AZ

This is a digitally edited double exposure of photos I took for my Water Leadership Institute program. Taken on a disposable film camera, these were 2 of the 5 sites we were lucky enough to visit and learn from. I was fortunate to participate with my loved ones, and our early-morning conversations on the bus inspired me to look more deeply into my relationship with water and how I can protect it. The Patagonia picture was taken mid-convo drinking my tea, and the Wa:k Hikdan was a special moment when I cried, like a river flowing, and was held by people who care about me. The beauty in how water restores is something we can all cherish in each little moment.

 

Shared Flow, Shared Path

Maria Jose Uribe Perez

2024 - Clear Creek, AZ

As our modern lives tend to pull us apart, water finds a way to bring us back together. In this photo, Clear Creek becomes a natural meeting point where we can come together on those warm summer days in Arizona, flowing together along the path that the river has carved through centuries. Winslow, AZ (2024)

 

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Alfalfa y the desert

Daniel Salcedo

Salome, AZ

While people are struggling with dried wells, alfalfa keeps being produced in the area.

A Different Kind of Abundance

Aryaana Khan

2026 - Horseshoe Bend, Page, Arizona

Growing up at the mercy of water in Bangladesh and New York City, I never imagined needing to adapt to its absence. It took me a full year in the Southwest to understand water in a new way. Around my one-year anniversary in Arizona, I visited Horseshoe Bend in Page and captured this moment— drawn to the rare ribbon of water on the horizon and the vast geological story surrounding it. In Arizona, my relationship with water has become softer: shaped by humility and gratitude as immense as the canyon walls before me

We adapt

Alejandro Serrano

2025 - Somerton, AZ

Local vegetation doesn't require irrigation systems. Only what's not meant to be here does.

Buck Farm Rowing

Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey

Arizona State University

2025 - Near Buck Farm Canyon, Grand Canyon, Arizona

AW4A Team Member Dr. Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey rowing downstream on the Colorado River near Buck Farm Canyon in Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2025.

Silver Grotto Flute

Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey

Arizona State University

2025 - Silver Grotto (Twentynine Mile Canyon), Grand Canyon, Arizona

A quiet moment and a musical offering beside the Colorado River in the Silver Grotto area of Twentynine Mile Canyon, Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2025. Pictured: Dr. Chris Dunn. (permission granted to make the image public)

Solar Powered Drip Irrigation System with Databots

Kim Alvin

Hartford Sylvia Encinas Elem School

2025 - Arizona State University

Water Irrigation Student Project connecting Science and Technology