Into The West

It is the path of least resistance where it did not occur to me to stop and observe. By chance, I was stranded in that area for a family event. As a result I began to photograph the oil fields and other landscapes in and around Taft, California. Hidden in the Greenhorn Mountains and the Naval Petroleum Reserve, lies one of the vast American resources, oil. As opposed to the many offshore oilrigs that populate the coast of California, these vast tracks of land are graft by a web of unpaved roads, farmlands and natural environs that connect thousands of solitary rigs that pump the pitch black gold from the earth. This is not intended to be a monologue about oil production, energy, or American industry. Those issues are beyond the reach of the images influence. Although those conversations are currently important and applicable to recent events, these images are proposed as a study of our modern landscape alone. They are a suspension of thoughtless passing and an attempt to capture a part of America that is disregarded by many. Yet, even though this window of land is not often seen, I believe that the forms in these landscapes are a manifestation of the soul of our humanity. And, like a hand print left in the soft earth, the change that has occurred in what was once a natural entity is telling of what has inflicted the alteration; man.