Size: 7.5” x 7.5” on 8.5” x 11” 300gsm Heavy Matte Paper

Signed & stamped in verso

When I photographed this my girlfriend lived in a small red caboose at the edge of the park. I’d drive down from Santa Barbara and stay, wake early and venture into Joshua Tree to shoot. It was all so easy. Easy because I wasn't shooting for anything but my own drive, my own obsession with it. I’d come back and we’d make love in the warm abandoned train car. And the next day I’d go back out and the mornings were so cold my fingers would freeze to my tripod, but all I had eyes for was good light and interesting shapes. What is it about a time of seeming simplicity, of a rawness that borders on arrogance. Do we really yearn for it or is it merely measured against what came after, as the complexity of life builds upon itself. My passion for this medium has matured from when this was photographed, but has not dampened.

I came to this image in a state of artistic hubris, drawn to the Mojave because of a harshness that mirrored my own brashness. What I walked away with though was anything but that, what I captured was soft and alluring, things I did not feel. Art can mess with your mind.

Location: Jumbo Rocks, Joshua Tree NP

Technical Info: Hasselblad, Kodak 160NC color film, Zeiss 50mm, no filtration.