Desert Haze ⏳
available for purchase
Desert Haze contains original photographs I’ve taken since 2014, alongside public domain images. It’s my first artist book.
I’ve been wanting to make one for a while, a book object I could be fully present with. The project asked more of me than I anticipated. Originally, I wanted to focus on the Antelope Valley’s desert habitat. But I have photos from several desert locations, and they each had something to say. I let the project expand, and the AV work will find its own form eventually.
The working title was The Desert is the Spirit of Uncertainty and Extremes. I’ve been living with that for some time (not as crisis, just as condition). Parched. Being unsure, uncertain, destabilized. I’ve gazed at a lot of open desert land and skies, wondering what direction my life is moving toward, how much time is left to find out. I’ve dreamt of living somewhere else. Away from extremes and uncertainties. But I made an answer for now: look closer at what’s here. Pay attention to what is, not what could be.
Here’s Desert Haze.
Art dates with friends
These days, my favorite thing to do with a friend is see an art show. We catch up, walk together, and naturally separate as we’re drawn to different things at different paces. I always leave inspired.
The image above is a screenshot from a video project by Tuan Andrew Nguyen. I walked into the dark room in the middle of the screening. Had it to myself. I was moved. Eyes wet.
Because No One Living Will Listen (2023) follows Habiba, a Vietnamese woman whose father was a Moroccan soldier who defected from the French army. The film is based around a speculative letter, written by Habiba to her father—who died when she was a baby—as a way to speak to him in his absence. Because No One Living Will Listen centers the Moroccan soldiers who defected from the colonial army and whose repatriation to Morocco was hindered by the outbreak of the Vietnam War.
It was also a reminder: oh, this is the kind of work I want to make. Working with people and their stories. Their experiences. Their reflections, discoveries, longing. Their questions. Their imagination. Their memories. Their reckonings.
Speaking in Tongues is on view at ICALA.
Until next time,
Stepfanie