Eric Persha is a photographer based in Oakland, California
where he lives with his partner Anna, his two daughters Caterina and Beau, and their dog Frank.
At his wedding one of the attendees asked “when did you know that Anna was the one” and he quickly replied, “on the boat ride into Echo Lake.” That first long weekend spent with Anna hiking the peaks and swimming in the lakes that surround the Echo basin felt like a moment of synchronized values and passion, that their children every season.
Eric grew up in a small farming community in Wisconsin. He relocated West toward the images he saw and the stories he read in climbing magazines and has since fallen under the spell of the Sierra’s vast and diverse landscape.
“Echo” is Eric Persha’s first monograph and it is no surprise that he’s focused his camera on a small community of people that have also been mesmerized by this mountain landscape. His photos in this body of work conjure that longing to feel small in the grandeur of nature and be drawn toward the unpredictable nature of what can happen when you are walking amongst the clouds.