The dry and thorny desert trips continue as I make my way through the Mojave again this week.
It used to baffle me why people would live in such a place, but the quite open space keeps bringing me back and I can see the appeal of living the desert life. Of course this will change in a few months when its a 120 degrees and I am attacked by a desert dog or sand flies.
I did meet a man who claimed to be living in the desert, and by that I mean living off the land and not a house with ac and running water. He certainly looked like he had been ruffing it, or maybe he was just homeless. But after talking with him for a while I realized he actually was serious and as it happens very interested in photography (or stealing my camera).
And so I continued to entertain him and then he asked if I he could watch me make a photograph. At this point I wasn't sure if he wanted to be my friend, rob me, or undo my belt. But concerns aside I began to compose an image and talked him through my steps.
And so after setting up a shot with a mountain in the background, an old sofa in the foreground, and a stray dog in the distance, the desert man asked if I could hold on a moment why he went to get something. And so I waited with baited breath as the man scurried off, probably to get a knife or a large stick, at least that's what I was thinking. Moments later the dirty man reappeared holding something wrapped in a dirty old towel.
"You've inspired me to take a photograph. would you mind?"
At that moment he removed the towel covering a camera and lifted it to his eye.
It was a Leica M3...
What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.
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