My most recent photo-based work in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts is a series of fantastical " portraits"  featuring the iconic Joshua Tree and the Saguaro cactus.

To create these images, I focus on the cacti’s upper branches during the golden hour, and then manipulate the color channels in photoshop to achieve a sense of surreality. The vibrant hues from hot pink to cool blue, married with the late afternoon light, create a convergence of myth and reality. Utilizing these processes enable me to heighten the comical and figurative anthropomorphic qualities that mirror our own human physical gestures.

My cacti portraits are markedly different from the desert cactus photographs by renowned artists like Lee Friedlander, Ansel Adams, and Imogen Cunningham. Yet, their images inform this work, especially Friedlander's "Desert Series," (e.g, his cropping of cacti branches). I also draw inspiration from the industrial tower typology photographs by Hilla and Bernd Becher, who blended documentation, taxonomy, and conceptual art. Similarly, I capture variations within a type, but in my images, I introduce a heightened dissonance between each cactus image through the use of an extreme color palette.

With this series, I hope to engender a sense of playfulness, compassion, and a profound appreciation for these Cacti's beauty and resilience, while prompting introspection on our interconnectedness with the natural world.