For more than two decades this region has been both preoccupation and passion. From my base near Los Angeles, I have taken every opportunity during that time for new explorations—sometimes a focused pursuit of one shot, other times serendipitous.
The process has ebbed and flowed, depending on assignment schedules, weather, Park Service and tribal restrictions, and of course Covid! But, perseverance has been the mantra. Nothing worth doing is ever easy.
What has emerged is a series of images that I think live up to the project title: Silence and Slow Time—an all-pervasive silence, time, long and deep, and a mystique that has grown through millennia.
The images are arranged in three galleries: Landscape and Light, Hand of Man, and Magical Realism, and range from epic to intimate all over the seven southwestern states. There are accessible icons: Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde and the like; but most locations are ‘out there,’ back of beyond, often otherworldly and sometimes a long trek to capture just one image.
Each gallery has an edgy aesthetic, more gritty than pretty, with black and white the main treatment, color when appropriate. All befitting a harsh and arid land of immensity, stark beauty, and elemental wonder.
All together the image collections portray my personal vision of an ancient region—evoking history and mystery, endless variations of weather, vast geology, as well as anthropology, archaeology and many more ‘ologies,’ all underpinned with scores of stories legends and myths, many of which owed to decades of film history — The Spirit of the Southwest.
There’s nothing like it in the world.
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the journey.
Best,
© Copyright Kevin Flynn Burke Photography 2024