I’ve logged more experience than most with simplicity and the complexity you discover inside simplicity, minimalism and asocial behavior, endurance and landscape.
Here is the truth: I think some deep wisdom inside me (a) sensed the stress, (b) was terrified for me, and (c) gave me something new and hard to focus on in order to prevent me from lapsing into a despair coma — and also to keep me from having a jelly jar of wine in my hand.
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Photographer Marc Toso has been exploring remote areas of the Southwest ever since he left Pennsylvania to go to college in New Mexico more than two decades ago. The photographs on these pages are the result of countless hours he has spent roaming the desert after dark with only a headlamp or the moon to light his way. Toso uses long camera exposures to capture his spectacular images of nocturnal skies, often doing push-ups or squats to stay warm as he waits. Ruins and petroglyphs — mysterious images left in stone by early human cultures — are visible in the foreground of many of his images. The combination of ancient art, elemental desert landscapes, and star-filled skies helps create the sense that, as Toso says, “we are but momentary flashes of awareness on a tiny ball in a vast universe.” You can view more of his work at ancientskys.com.
— Ed.
© Marc Toso
Marc Toso