Desert (2011), was shot in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, 140 miles east of Los Angeles. The park is over 1200 square miles of high altitude desert with bizarre geological features. The edited footage captures the sublime cycles within the desert landscape – the shifting position of the sun, clouds, and the movement of the desert plants by the wind. The hypnotic pace of the desert is interrupted by aerial shots of crop circle-like patterns in the flat valley.
For one month in 2009 I lived twenty miles into Joshua Tree National Park. I stayed in a cabin down a dirt road, off the grid, with no means of communication. Water was tanked in and power was limited to solar and battery. The idea was immersion and reaction – a documentation of myself in the desert and the record of that time. The daily practice was based around a car, a camera pack, and a map. I would pick an area or direction and if it had an interesting feeling to it, hike from there. Time was spent drifting, shooting, studying, and building on each preceding day.