Gallery Notes - Death Valley California
The reputation of Death Valley precedes it: hot, arrid, dangerous. Not a place to linger by all accounts. Our visit to Death Valley was certainly not cold, but I will not remember it for the heat, more the incessant hot wind. Now on the South coast of England we are well used to wind, but it blows gently and cool, or it blasts in wet and gusty off the Atlantic. Nothing like in Death Valley. This wind blew at a steady 30mph for three days, filling the tent with sand driving us mad. I will never forget the relief at sitting back into the car after a couple of hours photographing at Zabriakie Point at dawn, relief just to out of that furnace of a gale.
The collection features the well-known landmarks: Badwater, the Dunes, Zabriskie Point, Dante's View, Striped Butte, Scotty's Castle, Ubehebe Crater. But, as always at TTL, I hope it is about more than just the place. It is about the light and our passage through time. I was amazed to listen to the intakes of breath at Scotty's Castle as we looked at history that was no more than 70 years old. Outside the window was a billion years of natural history at its best ... Enjoy Death Valley, California.
