Portrait of Gary Ladd with 4x5 camera against a backdrop of red rocks is by Renee Roundtree.
Hall of Fame 2026
Gary LaddBORN 1947   Photograph by Renee Roundtree People sometimes describe a moment of clarity descending like a bolt of lightning. Gary Ladd’s was more literal — and…
Spartan residences line Tempe’s unpaved First Street in the 1920s. This view is looking east toward the Hayden Flour Mill and Tempe Butte, better known today as “A” Mountain. | Tempe History Museum
Pillar of the Community
On a warm day, the grounds of the Elias-Rodriguez House in Tempe feel surprisingly cool. Surrounded by a forest of apartment buildings housing Arizona State University students, the property protects…
Gloria Martinez-Granados’ work often incorporates mesh produce bags — a nod to the artist’s heritage, and to the identity she’s worked her entire life to find. By Adriana Zehbrauskas
It's In The Bags
Most mesh produce bags are made from polypropylene, which is known for its strength.The compound’s crystalline fibers, when woven together, can hold 30 to 50 pounds of onions, oranges, potatoes, nuts…
A building in Tucson's El Presidio barrio shows off a brightly-painted window frame flanked by two large light green ceramic pots housing prickly pear cactus. By Steven Meckler
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhoods
The barrio is a miracle. It is wind and dust put to work. It is water poured out on a browning ice plant yesterday, bursting fuchsia tomorrow. The barrio is where we cook over an open flame or fast…
Rayenari is one of the most successful U.S. teams in escaramuza, a Mexican tradition more than 70 years old. | Adriana Zehbrauskas
Reins Supreme
Yolanda Campos’ earliest memories are of being on horseback at age 5, when she began falling deeply in love with her family’s Mexican rodeo traditions. Within two years, she was being trained for…
Mexican goldpoppies and lupines decorate a meadow dotted with teddy bear chollas in the Black Mountains of Western Arizona. This location is near the old mining town of Oatman, now a tourist destination known for its free-roaming burros. | Claire Curran
Spring to Life
Brittlebush flowers reach skyward from a sea of their brethren at San Tan Mountain Regional Park, southeast of Phoenix. In addition to spring blooms, this 10,000-acre…
Backlit cottonwoods define a view of Central Arizona’s Fossil Creek. Once an omnipresent sight along the state’s waterways, cottonwoods now occupy a fraction of their former habitat — a result, scientists say, of increased water use and climate change. | Derek von Briesen
We Might Be Up a Tree
W‌hen Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his men traveled north from Mexico in 1540 into what would later be called Arizona, they were searching for fabled cities of gold. But…
The rising sun illuminates a blooming ocotillo and prickly pear cactuses along the Sedona area’s Teacup Trail. Ocotillos typically bloom in the spring but may also do so in response to summer rainfall. | Laura Zirino
The Nerve of Mother Nature …
Fittonia albivenis is native to South America — to places such as Ecuador and Colombia, Bolivia and Brazil. Indigenous tribes in these places use the plant’s leaves as a salve for headaches and…