Desert Clouds
In a world where we always have too much to do, there is something to be said of walking boldly into places where the silence is disturbingly deafening.
Land of Sand
I love people. I love my family, my children… but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up. -Pearl S. Buck
Desert Life
“I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Roadrunner Yucca
My quirky desert companion, a Soaptree Yucca. The Soaptree Yucca derives its name from the soapy material in its roots and trunks, which made this plant a popular substitute for soap. Native Americans used the coarse fiber of the leaves for weaving baskets.
Azul Sky
“most of my wandering in the desert i've done alone. not so much from choice as from necessity - i generally prefer to go into places where no one else wants to go. i find that in contemplating the natural world my pleasure is greater if there are not too many others contemplating it with me, at the same time.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Desert Grass
“Man’s existence,” said Edward Knobel in his Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges and Rushes of the United States, "depends directly or indirectly, almost entirely on the grasses, a fact which should make this part of the vegetable kingdom the most interesting to us. Aside from their usefulness, their beauty and graceful forms are unsurpassed by any other plants…” In our desert Southwest, the Puebloan peoples, for one example, depended on a grass, specifically corn, so heavily that it stood not only at the core of their food supply but of their spiritual life as well.
Golden Yuccas
White Sands National Monument is the largest and most spectacular gypsum desert in the world. These brilliant, white dunes cover a massive 275 square miles of southern New Mexico. If you are fortunate enough to be here during the magical hour of sunset, you'll be treated to a spectacular show of golden light and rippled shadows.
Slant of Light
"The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light."
— Jon Krakauer
Dunescape
"I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”
― William Shakespeare
Evening Sky
When was the last time you visited White Sands National Monument? I can't think of too many places where the only sounds you will hear are the shuffling of your own steps, the sound of your own breathing and nothing on the horizon but softly sculpted hills of shifting sand.
Desert Solitaire
“This sweet virginal primitive land will metaphorically breathe a sigh of relief--like a whisper of wind--when we are all and finally gone and the place and its creations can return to their ancient procedures unobserved and undisturbed by the busy, anxious, brooding consciousness of man.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Evening Shadows on the Dunes
Black shadows on a rippled white canvas. New Mexico. White Sands National Monument is the largest and most spectacular gypsum desert in the world. These brilliant, white dunes cover a massive 275 square miles of southern New Mexico. Walking through these dunes at sunset was an unforgettable experience; I encountered no other footprints before me, only wind-created ripples and occasional lizard tracks.
Golden Yuccas - Metallic
Speeding down the dusty roads of southern New Mexico, looking at the wide open land stretching out in all directions, you'll notice spiky plants growing in the mesas and washes of the desert. Some will be squatting low in the burning sun, others standing tall, watching the sky for a chance of rain. These exotic looking plants are called Soaptree Yuccas.
Windswept Yucca
A yucca, complying with the forces.
White Sands National Monument is the largest and most spectacular gypsum desert in the world. These brilliant, white dunes cover a massive 275 square miles of southern New Mexico. If you are fortunate enough to be here during the magical hour of sunset, you'll be treated to a spectacular show of golden light and rippled shadows.
Azure Sands
The desert retains little of the day’s heat, and the temperature drops dramatically as dusk approaches. I pulled gloves and a Patagonia vest out of my backpack before climbing the dunes to photograph the sunset. After the sun has fully set, I realize I'm the last one standing on the sands, so I collapse my tripod and begin the long hike out, leaving this amazing national monument to the restless winds.
Timeless
The desert is a very special place. The contrast between the harsh sun and the cold nights, combined with the ever-changing shadows, colors, and shifting dunes, means that the experience will be different and personal for everyone.
The desert has entered my soul and has changed me forever. It provides a simplistic, raw freedom that is hard for me to find anyplace else.
Rio Chama
In 1929, Georgia O’Keeffe traveled to New Mexico, where she fell in love with the open skies and sun-drenched landscape. She was particularly drawn to the stark but brightly colored red and yellow hills and cliffs of the Ghost Ranch area and its flat-topped mountain, Cerro Pedernal; the white jagged cliff formations near the village of Abiquiu; the cedar trees surrounding the Ghost Ranch house; and the bleached desert bones she collected as she roamed the desert. All became frequent subjects in her work through the 1940s. After walking in her footsteps this weekend, I captured this photo of the Rio Chama, also drenched with the richest colors of the southwest.
Kiva
The structure of the kivas symbolizes the three other worlds that all beings, including the Hopi, passed through. Beneath the floor level is a small hole in the ground called sipapuni which comes up from the first underworld of fire. The floor level represents the second world of air, the breath of life. A raised seating area is the third world, the world of water, the blood of life. A ladder goes up through the roof to the fourth world.
This photo was taken at Pecos National Monument, Pecos, New Mexico.
The Superstitions
During the 1840s the Peralta family of northern Mexico supposedly developed rich gold mine(s) in the Superstitions. Their last expedition to carry gold back to Mexico occured in 1848. According to legend, the large party was ambushed by Apaches, and all were killed except for one or two Peralta family members who escaped into Mexico. This area is known today as the Massacre Grounds.
Ranchos Church
Also known as "Ranchos Church," this sanctuary was built in the late 1700s and was made famous by Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams, among many other artists who became fascinated by its looming buttresses.Every spring, the people of the community gather to mud a new layer of adobe on the walls, preserving their church in the time-worn ways of northern New Mexico, with a mixture of mud and straw.
No Vacancy
The birds built a nest and moved right in.
The Moulton Barn
Building out of necessity to shelter his horses against the harsh winters of the Tetons and Jackson Hole, Thomas Alma Moulton didn’t know he was creating a future landmark to Jackson Hole Valley and a mecca for photographers from around the world. I find myself constantly drawn to this barn. During the summer and fall months, it’s difficult to go there and not have a handful or a bus full of photographers lined up taking their shots of this old iconic structure.
Sandia Sunset
Overlooking the city of Albuquerque from Sandia Peak. It's believed that the name Sandia (Spanish: Watermelon) was given to the mountains for the pinkish color of their granite peaks. A cave in these mountains has yielded the so-called "Sandia Man," a prehistoric Indian group that is thought to date back to 23,000 B.C.
Land of Denali
Polychrome Pass offers some of the most expansive views in Denali National Park. I took this picture in August while visiting the park during a very cloudy and rainy period.
The Tetons
The Teton Range - with peaks rising as much as 7,000 feet off the valley floor - is the centerpiece of tGrand Teton National Park. Views from either of the two main roads, which run north-south through the park, are nothing short of spectacular. The highest, most prominent peak is the Grand Teton, standing at 13,770 feet. South of the Grand are the Middle Teton, South Teton, and Cloudveil Dome, among others.
Mudra
"You only lose what you cling to." - Buddha
Mudras are a non-verbal mode of communication consisting of hand and finger postures. These gestures symbolize divine manifestation. They are used by monks in their spiritual exercises of ritual meditation and concentration, and are believed to generate forces that invoke the deity.
This photo was taken at The Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Aspens
Aspen leaves, New Mexico.
Polychrome Highway
Polychrome Pass offers some of the most expansive views in Denali National Park. I took this picture in August while visiting the park during a very cloudy and rainy period.
Century Plant
A Century Plant lives for 10 to 30 years (the "century" is an exaggeration) before it uses all its reserves to produce a magnificent flower stalk that can be 15 feet tall. After that, the original plant dies but is replaced by small offshoots around the base. I photographed this particular plant in my own backyard. It has yet to produce its showy blossom.
Aspens and a Cobalt Sky
An abstract capture of an aspen grove against a deep blue sky.
Lotus
"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly,
the whole world would change."
- Buddah
Inside the walls of the Mission San Juan de Capistrano sits a glorious pond of colorful lotuses.
Blue Skies all the Way
A doorway to the open prairie, Fort Union, New Mexico.
Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During its forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. It is a landscape dominated by short-grass prairie, rugged mesas and pinon-juniper woodlands, where bison roamed and hunter-gatherer tribes survived.
Fort Union
Fort Union was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner as a guardian and protector of the Santa Fe Trail. During its forty-year history, three different forts were constructed close together. The third and final, Fort Union, was the largest in the American Southwest and functioned as a military garrison, territorial arsenal, and military supply depot for the southwest. It is also a landscape of unexpected diversity that is steeped in early Western American history. It is a place dominated by short-grass prairie, rugged mesas and pinon-juniper woodlands, where bison roamed and hunter-gatherer tribes survived.
Imperial
I have many different makes and models of cars and trucks captured at many locations over a period of many years. Some show entire vehicles, while others show detail and abstract views. Many were shot as multiple exposures and combined in the computer using the HDR process.
Land of Enchantment
Most of these old cars and trucks were photographed in New Mexico, sitting along washed out arroyos or baking in the open desert with flat-topped mesas in the distance.
These old cars harken back to an era when magnificent automobiles were created and celebrated. After World War II, car companies took advantage of the abundance of steel and started manufacturing large, well-appointed, high-powered, and aerodynamic cars that set trends in design and engineering. The cars of the fifties, trimmed with gleaming chrome inside and out, ignited Detroit’s Golden Age of the automobile. These ornate designs incorporated art, science, and engineering to produce works of rolling sculpture.
V-8
A rusted grill and hood from an old Chevy pickup truck.
The Railyard
A colorful train car in The Railyard, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
V-8 II
A rusty old vintage Chevrolet pickup truck abandoned in a field on an old farm in New Mexico.
Land of Enchantment II
These colorful, rusted sculptures seem to exhibit more mystery and character now than when they were new.
Imperial Ride
Most of these old cars and trucks were photographed in New Mexico, sitting along washed out arroyos or baking in the open desert with flat-topped mesas in the distance.
These old cars harken back to an era when magnificent automobiles were created and celebrated.
After World War II, car companies took advantage of the abundance of steel and started manufacturing large, well-appointed, high-powered, and aerodynamic cars that set trends in design and engineering. The cars of the fifties, trimmed with gleaming chrome inside and out, ignited Detroit’s Golden Age of the automobile. These ornate designs incorporated art, science, and engineering to produce works of rolling sculpture.
Rust in Peace
In these photos, I tried to capture the artistry embodied in these cars and portray them in a different and compelling way. I have used various camera techniques and computer processing enhancements to achieve a unique look which at times varies significantly from what the original, unmodified image looked like.
Heavy Metal
Most of these old cars and trucks were photographed in New Mexico, sitting along washed out arroyos or baking in the open desert with flat-topped mesas in the distance.
These old cars harken back to an era when magnificent automobiles were created and celebrated.
After World War II, car companies took advantage of the abundance of steel and started manufacturing large, well-appointed, high-powered, and aerodynamic cars that set trends in design and engineering. The cars of the fifties, trimmed with gleaming chrome inside and out, ignited Detroit’s Golden Age of the automobile. These ornate designs incorporated art, science, and engineering to produce works of rolling sculpture.
Studebaker
This Studebaker truck, made sometime in the 1930s, sold new for approximately $600.00.
Embudo Tanks
I came across this charming museum driving along the high road to Taos. Johnny Meier, the owner, met me out front, gave me a detailed history of the classic design of gas pumps and memorabilia, vintage oil cans, signage, and neon--even going into the history of graphic design from the '30s onward. It's a great place, run by a charming and knowledgeable man.
Santa Fe
This image was captured on the famed Canyon Road, in Santa Fe.
Room with a View
Cunningham's Cabin, an early homestead in Jackson Hole Valley.
Kootenay Harbor
Downtown Nelson is so charming, it once served as the small-town set for Steve Martin’s 1986 quaint rom-com Roxanne. There are six places to buy organic matcha tea in the city that’s also widely referred to as Canada’s “pot capital." But I don't really know about all of that: I came for the world class skiing.
Moose Tracks
The willows in the background of the photo were a tasty winter treat for this lone moose in Jackson Hole Valley.
Mount Moran
Reflections of Mount Moran on the Oxbow. Mt. Moran is named for Thomas Moran, a famous frontier landscape artist, who was the friend and colleague of Dr. Ferdinand D. Hayden, the noteworthy surveyor of the west in the late 1800s.
Hapuna Beach
Shot from The Big Island, on Hapuna Beach; a perfect crescent of sugar soft golden sand.
Gallery | New Mexico Travel Photographer
New Mexico photographer Joy Johnson spends much of her time in the expansive deserts of the American Southwest. On most days, you will find her in White Sands National Monument, Abiquiu, Ghost Ranch or along the Rio Chama.