Before packing up the camera and tripod and heading out to dinner, look for subjects that would make an interesting silhouette. The last light of the day often displays strong color gradients, such as this image taken at Hidden Valley in Joshua Tree National Park.
Rocks, pebbles and sand: finding art in the desert
Since the early beginnings of the Land Art movement in the 1960s, artists have installed land art works anywhere in the world, placing them from high up in the mountains to deep below the sea. Deserts, in particular, have provided artists with space and natural materials to create and exhibit new works. For artists who live and work in urban environments, space is a luxury. And so it comes to no surprise that so many of them have taken to some of the most barren landscapes across the globe to live out their creative projects, often in dramatic scale.
Creating and installing art in the ‘middle of nowhere’ desert has become an American phenomenon and a right of passage for many land artists, in particular. The American continents combined have some of the largest non-polar deserts in the world, ranging from the Chihuahuan, Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, Mojave and Sonoran deserts in the north, to the Atacama and Patagonian deserts in the south. Linked with a greater tendency to fund private and public art projects than other continents, this makes for the perfect breeding ground for desert land art works.
Europe, on the other hand, doesn’t have near as many deserts and most African and Asian countries lack the funds to commission frivolous art projects that not many people ever get to see. Most donors — and rightly so — are hesitant to fund artworks that are inaccessible and don’t directly engage with the public — particularly if they are publicly funded or need to generate commercial interest and sales. Oceania’s somewhat conservative art scene, at least until now, hasn’t been able to greatly contribute to the desert art scene either.
Nevertheless, over the years, many different artists have installed works in deserts around the world, contributing to this art movement in their own unique ways. Here are some examples.
Measuring light and determining exposure
The prevalent weather condition experienced while photographing desert landscapes is typically a bright, cloud-free sky with direct, overhead harsh lighting.
This creates a high dynamic range of tones in your photographic scene from bright white to deep, dark shadows.
In the desert (as for other landscapes), it’s important to manage exposure carefully to prevent your scene’s highlights from being blown out.
While metering is the traditional method of measuring the light that reaches your camera’s sensor, you should always trust your histogram when determining exposure rather than relying on your camera’s meter.
The histogram is far more accurate than relying on camera metering, which is far better than relying on the camera’s display screen.
Using the histogram should become an essential part of your workflow whenever you take a photo. A histogram can be displayed during shooting (on mirrorless cameras) or reviewed after shooting (on DSLRs).
Some DSLRs may have a ‘live mode’ where the histogram can be displayed during shooting, but be aware that using live mode will deplete a DSLR’s battery quickly.
The histogram is a bar graph that shows the 256 different tones, from pure black (on the left) to pure white (on the right). The height of each bar shows the number of pixels that appear in the image of that tone.
As you change your exposure settings (depending on the exposure mode you use, for example, Aperture Priority or Manual), the histogram will change shape and move to the right or left.
Using the histogram, you can adjust the camera settings that affect exposure (aperture, shutter speed, and/or ISO) to ensure you capture the full range of tones in the scene.
To ensure you don’t blow out the highlights in your scene, you adjust your exposure settings to position (or shift) the histogram so that the graph profile touches the bottom horizontal axis and does not quite touch the right-hand side vertical axis.
This is often referred to as Expose To The Right or ETTR. The shape of the histogram is not important and is purely a result of the different tones in the scene you’re shooting.
Sometimes, when photographing sunrise, sunset, or another high-contrast scene, it is impossible to position the histogram graph without clipping the whites (right-hand side), blacks (left-hand side), or both.
This is because the dynamic range of the scene (the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the image) exceeds what your camera’s sensor can capture in a single image.
In this case, you can use exposure bracketing to take a range of images with different exposure settings. These bracketed images are then combined in post-processing to create a final image that shows the full dynamic range of the scene.
Pre-dawn and sunrise
When shooting deserts during morning twilight – whether shooting away from the sun or towards it – you’ll typically need to bracket your exposures to ensure that you can capture the complete dynamic range of the scene.
In the above image of the Belt of Venus (an atmospheric phenomenon visible shortly before sunrise during civil twilight, producing a pinkish glow) without bracketing exposures, you would have to choose whether to expose for the color gradient in the sky or the shadow detail of the Joshua Trees.
You would not have been able to capture both in a single exposure.
By bracketing exposures (and shooting a series of 5 to 7 images at 1-stop intervals) and combining the images in post-processing, you can see both the color gradient and the shadow detail.
The example above, taken towards the rising sun, was also bracketed to include both the colors in the sky and the foreground shadow detail of the rocks and Dwarf Juniper tree.
Daytime
Once the sun is above the horizon and before it has risen too high in the sky, it is a great time to take single-frame images, as exposure bracketing will not be required because the dynamic range is reduced within the camera’s limits.
In this shot, taken while on a 4WD safari in the dunes outside Dubai, the morning sun picks out the ripples of the sand on the dunes without casting overly dark shadows.
Landscape Paintings
‘Desert Solitaire’ by Maynard Dixon: The renowned American artist Maynard Dixon masterfully captures the solitude and expansiveness of the desert landscape in his piece, ‘Desert Solitaire.’ With his signature emphasis on natural forms, Dixon illustrates the grandeur of towering mesas and sprawling, sun-drenched vistas. The warm, earthy hues envelop the viewer in the palpable sense of tranquility and oneness with nature that the desert embodies.
‘Desert Moon’ by Georgia O’Keeffe: A veritable icon of American modernism, Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘Desert Moon’ transports the viewer to a surreal and dreamlike realm of the desert night. O’Keeffe’s characteristic fluidity of form coalesces with her bold, yet ethereal colour palette to evoke the ethereal beauty of the desert landscape under the mesmerizing glow of the full moon.
Abstract Paintings
‘Desert Mirage’ by Helen Frankenthaler: Pioneering abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler presents an atmospheric and emotive interpretation of the desert landscape in ‘Desert Mirage.’ The fluid, organic shapes and vibrant colour harmonies converge to create a visual symphony that resonates with the viewer, invoking the ephemeral beauty of the desert’s ever-shifting sands.
‘The Silence’ by Wassily Kandinsky: In his groundbreaking work, ‘The Silence,’ Kandinsky explores the enigmatic allure of the desert through his signature geometric abstraction. The interplay of vibrant colours and intricate forms evoke the sense of otherworldly transcendence that the desert landscape has long inspired in the hearts of countless artists.
Photography
‘Desert Cathedral’ by Ansel Adams: Celebrated American photographer Ansel Adams captures the majesty and monumental scale of the desert landscape in his stunning photograph ‘Desert Cathedral.’ The sweeping view of the towering rock formations, set against the infinite horizon, conveys the breathtaking beauty and resilience of the desert’s timeless landscape.
‘Sandstorm’ by Sebastião Salgado: Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado’s gripping image, ‘Sandstorm,’ seizes the raw, elemental force of the desert. The chiaroscuro effect of the swirling sands against the sun’s piercing rays immortalizes the formidable beauty and power of nature’s most enigmatic landscape.
