Taming Horses
2007
Photographs and photobook.
Neither the desert nor gambling are open arenas; their spaces are finite and concentric, increasing in intensity toward the interior, toward a central point, be it the spirit of gambling or the heart of the desert – a privileged, immemorial space, where things lose their shadow...
J. Baudrillard “Desert Forever” from America (1986)
From accompanying text:
In the New Mexico desert, the Winslow Meteor Crater viewing binoculars are all pointed at its shaft of scientific endeavour. Immediately, and with excitement, I recognised the viewing window in the wall as that in Richard Misrach’s ‘window’ of 1982. At Badwater salt lake – the second lowest point below sea level in the northern hemisphere – I stood in the midday heat waiting for some temporary visitors.
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Entering the Valley of Death, the rent-a-Jeep cruised over the smooth mounds in the road like an off-shore swell. In the rear-vision-mirror appeared two fire trucks approaching at lightning speed. They passed quickly, and I sped up. Remembering the couple cheeky beers I had at lunch, I soon thought the best of it... We were soon greeted by a roadblock and told we could go no further, “A holiday trailer has blown-up all over the road.” We decided to retreat to Panamint Springs for the night. A wise move that led us the next morning to Ballarat (amazingly named after the town in Victoria); the ‘ghost town’ and last stop before the infamous Barkers Ranch, Charles Manson’s former lair. The place seemed something like a dumping ground for both ‘The Family’ and military activities that go on ‘over the hill’ at China Range.
Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated. J. Baudrillard “Vainshing Point”, from America (1986)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9e5c5a1f22e54c6aea1812a7436f5f746347701529407656df9c23b4d25c0b7/badwater-4-people.jpg)
Dead Valley
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f8142b44758deed7735e1d8bc59f099fd65af29ccd0190515a62d4d711ca30e/Ballarat_Army-Vehicle.jpg)
Ballarat
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9351c89f84025ab24c5f2e6863806a70d8183f2e1f5cf073657ff30ae550df7/web_Crator_The-View.jpg)
Winslow (after Misrach)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5b517f46ef0f9c8698efd79b210e846ed2adcf50293e4c69b03ce9cfd6680210/Ballarat_wilderness.jpg)
Ballarat
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d5e1db4044d30c90950664294224f9d2261919deed9d265163914bd7336137b/Trump-tower.jpg)
Las Vegas
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7fa876ef1425a0adc33374e3cf6e3ce39486aa2737795ad9f91f74b38bf41d00/Vegas_cranes.jpg)
Nevada
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/219c94b150f44fe91df7cdce7344de3fa55d36fc054a43042b1ad6bc2229ade0/web_Raising-Arizona_smaller-image.jpg)
Arizona
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e45cce43830680c0a9d629893904ed6d0d73a465377da908ea4d8e8c51f54cd9/Vegas_fax-bra-phone.jpg)
Las Vegas