505 years since we were last were all connected. I weep and continue our diaspora, 2025 By Star Montana

By The River, I May Destroy You is a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based photographer Star Montana. Through photography and video, she explores constructs of place, cultural heritage, belonging, and familial connections in her work. This body of work—featuring a selection of recently produced photographs—takes water as its central theme and highlights diverse locales including Los Angeles, Texas, New Mexico, Northern California, and Mexico. These sites are not only pertinent to Montana’s personal history, but are also the homes of numerous rivers, bodies of water, and other landmarks, including the Los Angeles River, the Rio Grande, and the pyramids of Teotihuacán—all of which possess cultural significance in their relationship to indigeneity and Mexican-American heritage. These rivers and sites, however, have also transformed over time through forces of colonialism, the construction and designation of borders, and forced migration.

Often placing herself in the settings that she captures, Montana looks to the intersection of personal and collective narratives, and in turn, forms meaningful visual connections between self and place. Spanning themes of displacement, discovery, sovereignty, loss, and memory, these images and the various sites that they depict speak to the juxtaposition of nature and the built environment, the immutable power of water and nature, and intergenerational trauma and healing.