This body of work has been compiled from the 10+ years I have driven between my home in Denver, Colorado and my hometown in rural, Northern California. I like to take Highway 50 across Nevada, colloquially known as “America’s Loneliest Highway”, a desolate road that is, logistically, the quickest way across the state but is, in fact, a place I have found myself lingering as heavy afternoons dip into evening and evenings into a kind of austere nightfall unique to American desert environments. Highway Hypnosis is a phenomenon characterized by a driver’s experience driving long stretches without remembering having done so. Where speed limits often exceed 80 mph and landscapes slope and rise into formations carved out by prehistoric oceans and summer monsoons, I often remember the desert like one remembers fragments of a dream. Once at a portfolio review a gallery curator, looking disapprovingly on my work, told me; “well, the American West is hard”. Indeed, it is beyond my understanding, and infinity alluring. I hope to have the opportunity to photograph it for many years to come. All images are analog color film, including 120 medium format, 35mm, and Polaroid.
