Exploring Eclectic Perspectives in Images, Words, and Design
About
Martha Retallick is a Tucson-based documentary photographer and journalist.
She’s drawn to documentation projects that feature people in action. They’re building and renovating houses, creating or improving landscapes, and making and fixing things. Or they’re celebrating life passages like weddings, exhibiting vintage cars, competing in bicycle races, or just pedaling around town.
In addition to documentation, Martha enjoys photographing nature and advocating for water conservation. She is the author/publisher of City Nature, a coffee table book, and Water Harvesting 101, an audiobook and eBook that is also featured in her weekly Water Harvesting 101 Podcast.
Water Harvesting 101
In Tucson, Arizona — a city that averages just 12 inches of rainfall per year — drought isn’t an occasional challenge. It’s a way of life. Yet even in this arid environment, Martha Retallick has transformed her home into a thriving, water-efficient oasis. Her secret? A combination of passive and active water harvesting techniques that are easy to learn — and put to work. Water Harvesting 101 shows you how.
The Weekly Water Harvesting 101 Podcast
Water harvesting encompasses three activities: Redirecting rainwater away from where it isn’t wanted to where it is; storing rainwater for later use, for example, during a drought; and recycling “used” water.
This weekly podcast covers these topics — and a whole lot more.
City Nature
A Whole Earth Catalog for our time, this book addresses all the important things: food, water, cookies, flowers, bees, and bicycles. Part practical guide, part personal diary, many parts gorgeous coffee table book, City Nature is for anyone looking to learn how to be a better steward of one’s own backyard, as well as a visual celebration of what grows from dirt when we take the time to nurture it. A must for the preservation of our dwindling resources, presented with positivity and
clear instructions!
– Carrie Seid, Artist and Creativity Consultant
Projects
From construction project documentation to weather monitoring, nature photography to language learning, and engineering research to low-cost landscaping, Martha Retallick’s diverse interests are on display here.
This is what happens when you buy a house that needs a lot of work…
Gaining photography skills by focusing up close on backyard magic…
Blog
What will you find in Martha’s eclectic blog? Just about anything! She started blogging in 2007 and still hasn’t run out of things to write about.
Here are the latest posts:
Water Harvesting 101 Podcast: Episode 10 – Earthworks Creation Tip #2 – Best Practices for Basins
Water Harvesting 101 Podcast: Episode 9 – Earthworks Creation Tip #1 – Best Practices for Swales
Contact
Want to hire Martha for your project?