Anza Borrego #1 (2009) Photograph by Gary Moger

Anza-Borrego Desert, California — 2009

I was obsessed with the desert.

Not the desert of postcards, with some heroic mountain disappearing into a perfect blue sky, but the other desert — the quiet one. The one you have to stand around in for a while before it starts giving anything away.

At first there's the mountain. Of course there is. It's enormous, sunlit and completely indifferent to anything going on down here. But stay with it and the picture begins to break apart. The scrub. The tiny cacti. Dead branches. Little patches of colour in the dust. Stones sitting in the foreground that would normally be dismissed as nothing.

This is what I was looking for.

I became fascinated by how much was actually going on in these apparently empty places. The desert isn't empty at all. It's just very good at keeping its voice down.
I wanted to photograph the landscape as the eye actually sees it — without turning it into some grand, romantic wilderness picture. Just standing there, looking. Waiting for the light to move across the ground and for all those small details to reveal themselves.
The longer I looked, the more there was to see.

Technical Notes
Shot on a Leica M8 in 2009. Printed on Hahnemühle Photorag archival paper.

A Note on Process
Every print I sell is made in my own studio and checked for every detail and quality before I pack it for shipping. I use plastic free packaging.
The paper I use is the finest quality and after years of experimenting, I find it gives the best tonal range and finish.
Hahnemühle has been making art papers for hundreds of years.

Materials used:

Leica M8, Hahnemuhle Photorag Archival paper

Details:

• Photograph on Paper
• Size: 53.34 x 38.1 x 0.25cm (unframed) / 50.8 x 34.04cm (actual image size)
• Signed and numbered certificate of authenticity
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky
• Hurry, only 1 left in stock