Size: 7.5” x 7.5” on 8.5” x 11”

Signed & stamped in verso

I’ve been on this dry lake bed in the northern Death Valley many times. It always amazes me to see these stones in person because it doesn’t look real. Seemingly out of no where, their long paths are etched from nothing into long trains. And at the end of the etched track is the rock. Nothing indicates the how. All around is hardened lake bed dried into its cracked patterns. All kinds of photographic possibilities exist. Literal or abstraction. Graphic pieces or pull back views. I like the intimate here. The hint at its mystery, so I place the stone in the lower third with its track leading off the frame. The sun has already set behind the western ridge and Ubehebe Peak, but that’s okay, I want the soft evening shadows and bright horizon.

People have stolen some of these stones as is evidenced by empty tracks. It’s a bit sad. If you come, just let them be, there are plenty of other stones that aren’t part of this magnificent canvas. These stones should stay where they’ve slid and only be moved if the conditions the following winter are in concert to do it naturally.

Location: Racetrack Playa, Death Valley NP

Technical Info: Hasselblad 80mm. Kodak T-max 100. Developed in Kodak X-tol 1:1.