Michael Gordon’s prints are available on our website www.mojaveair.org/artist-in-residence and www.michael-gordon.com
photography here, consistent and obvious themes began to emerge from my work: desert plant studies;
geologic landforms; and simple meditations on space, light, and silence (I can’t explain how to visually
convey silence but I hear it in my images). These realizations provide a guide for my artistic endeavors:
I can simply and joyfully wander with my camera to see what I find, or I can specifically set out to
further develop evolving and growing bodies of work.
In 2011, I had the honor of being selected as Artist in Residence at the Mojave National Preserve.
It was probably some twenty years earlier when I made my first photographic study of a Joshua tree,
but it was likely a superficial portrait of a beautiful tree in beautiful light with little substance. Over
the next twenty years, I read and studied much about Yucca brevifolia. The Joshua tree - which is not
actually a tree - now had deeper dimensions and much more significance. I became fascinated by this
unusual yucca and wanted to share this fascination with others.
From approximately 2008 to 2011 (the year of my Residency at Mojave National Preserve), Joshua
trees became a primary focus of my work. Although I photographed them across the four states in
which they are found, most of my work was made at home in California, and much of it in Mojave
National Preserve. The Preserve provides all the important ingredients I require: vastness, silence, few
people, and the largest Joshua tree forest known to man. I routinely explored the forest periphery,
seeking charismatic specimens who stood alone against the ravages of time and weather. I walked
slowly, meditatively, and in a heightened state of awareness. The trees often called out and asked to be
photographed. They very often would tell me their name before I would ever expose a sheet of film. I
used a 100+ year old diffused focus lens on a 4x5” large format view camera to complete the timeless
visual aesthetic I sought.
Twenty-something years ago I would have never imagined a creative and artistic life based almost
exclusively on the Mojave Desert. I now cannot imagine life without it.
Jan/Feb 2018
|
THE DESERT LIGHT
13