Desert Bloom

A photographic journey through the American Southwest

This album was shot at the tail end of 2021, but the story begins a few years earlier. After losing my job, I was offered $50/day to join a small team out west creating a travel website. I flew out to Santa Barbara on a whim and started working. We rambled over sand dunes and mountain passes for a couple of weeks, documenting the remoteness of obscure little towns. We were telling the story of these places through photo and text, and publishing it as we went. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time, but I felt I had an underlying instinct for whatever it was. When I got home, I had a vision for entirely new career path laid out in front of me. And so I began freelancing as a photographer and graphic designer.

In late 2021, with travel still largely restricted by Covid, I engineered a new roadtrip through the west. This time I knew my way around the camera and I intended to do the scenery justice. I saddled a rooftop tent to my car and enlisted two co-pilots. Ultra-adventurist Uncle Dave—stateside at the time from Barcelona—would join me for the journey west. At LAX, my girlfriend Ani would tag in, and we'd make our way back home. A Desert Bloom is a climatic phenomenon where the vegetation of a dry, dormant landscape comes alive after a period of rain. Like one of these blooms, this photo journal represents both a personal creative rebirth, and a rejuvenated spirit following the Covid years.

Saturday Oct. 30th, 2021 | Day 1
8 hours through the rain from Boston to Pittsburgh.

Looking through a rainy windshield on the highway

View of Pittsburgh from atop Mount Washington

Dave wearing a halloween mask while driving

Dave sipping coffee through a halloween mask

The drive-through states.

Sign for the Mississippi River in St. Louis

Into that good night.

Nov. 1st, 2021 | Day 3

Somewhere in Kansas.

Gas mileage dwindles over hundreds of miles of slight incline across the plains.

We reached Colorado by sunset, and everything turned to liquid gold.

Nov. 2nd, 2021 | Day 4

Moab, Utah. A lush valley town surrounded by red desert.

Arches National Park.

Sun shining through a giant natural arch

Delicate Arch.

Two people roaming around big rock formations

Rock formation that inspired the title.

The La Sal Mountain range.

Nov. 3rd, 2021 | Day 5

Canyonlands National Park.

Man standing on a rock watching the sunset

Standing on the edge of a cliff in Canyonlands

Dead Horse Point state park.

Sun flare shining through my car window in a vehicle

Nov. 4th, 2021 | Day 6

South through Monument Valley en route to Page, Arizona.

The angle.

The shot.

Nov. 5th, 2021 | Day 7

Accidentally waking up to a giant balloon fiesta.

Two hot air balloons prepped for takeoff

Lift.

Taken by the wind.

Red and yellow hot air balloon in the desert

Gravity.

Horseshoe Bend.

Nov. 6th, 2021 | Day 8

Detour: 4 hours off course.

Bryce Canyon National Park.

The horseshoe shape of Bryce Canyon from the rim

Taking pictures deep in the hoodoo canyon

Nov. 6th, 2021 | Day 9

Late arrival to our 5 million-star hotel.

Waking up in a tent just west of Zion Park

Zion National Park.

Making a fire at the campsite next to the rooftop tent

Stained glass sconce light in a Zion coffeeshop

Part of Angel's Landing trail cuts into a cliff

Beginning the hike up Angel's Landing.

Virgin River swerves through Zion Canyon

The resulting view.

Court of the Patriarchs.

The Watchman.

Nov. 8th, 2021 | Day 10

Nevada. Just passing through.

Wig Wam Motel in San Bernardino, California

Getting our kicks.

Nov. 10th, 2021 | Day 12

Cheap motel pools and potent cocktails in Palm Springs.

Relaxation station. The "vacation" portion.

Twin Palms. The Sinatra Residence.

"Mojave Moonrise"

Nov. 13th, 2021 | Day 15

Joshua Tree by moonlight

Skull Rock

Orange glow shines through an opening in the rocks

Cholla Cactus Garden

Orange soda.

Rusted out car under the stars at Skyfire Ranch

Roys Motel and Cafe sign in Amboy, California

Heading back east through Amboy, CA. Population, 4.

Nov. 14th, 2021 | Day 16

The Grand Canyon. 5:28 am. Elevation 10,000'. 28 Degrees.

Artists hut along the south rim of the grand canyon

Girl sitting along the edge of the Grand Canyon

View of the backside of the Grand Canyon

The reverse view from the canyon rim.

Standin' on the corner in Winslow Arizona

Chrome silver truck against a brick wall

Nov. 16th, 2021 | Day 18

Wide open New Mexico

Old blue pickup truck driving down the highway

Two people sitting on a sand dune watching the sunset

Alien crash site exhibit at the International UFO museum in Roswell

Nov. 17th, 2021 | Day 19

There's East Texas. West Texas. And then there's the Far West.

We found in Marfa what we had gone looking for in Roswell. A rusty bohemian hideout with a mysterious twist. The "Marfa Lights" are a potentially extraterrestrial set of glowing orbs out in the Chihuahuan desert. They add an appropriate sense of weirdness to the town's existing personality. It's a fun story, even if they just turned out to be an atmospheric refraction of headlights on a distant highway.

Train tracks stretching across the Texas plains

Freida Kahlo mural on an auto parts garage

Front end of a rusty Chevrolet pickup truck

Pink art deco style fire station in Marfa

Large mural on the side of a building in Alpine Texas

Yellow trailer front with eyes painted on it

Nov. 19th, 2021 | Day 21

7 hours across Texas from Marfa to Austin.

Quite the combination.

Nov. 26th, 2021 | Day 28

A full day's drive from Austin. The final night.

Grungy green building in New Orleans' uptown

Nov. 27th, 2021 | Day 29-30 | Saturday into Sunday

Home is where I want to be.

After a month on the road, I woke up on a couch in New Orleans, sluggish and hungover. I'd just completed another trip around the sun, to cap off the roadtrip of a lifetime. I reflected on the wanderlust I felt years before, stuck in Quincy with no formal job, freelancing to make a few bucks through a bluey screen. There were limited resources and no directions then.

I sat in my car surrounded by the thick morning air of the Garden District with many miles in front of me. For the first time in a long time I really wanted to close that gap. I aimed my car northeast and sped off, tuning my radio dial to local football games of the SEC. I stopped for gas near Starkville and ate Chik-fil-a in Tuscaloosa. By nightfall, I pulled into an orange-drenched Knoxville after a game let out. I still had 13 hours to go. I picked up some coffee and a sandwich and continued on, but no amount of caffeine can stop the metronome of painted white lines flashing across your pupils in the completely black night. Eventually, I caught a glimpse of morning light somewhere in the Appalachians. Just short of 9am I got a whiff of that industrial Meadowlands smell and crossed into New York. On Sunday around noon, I pulled into my parents house in Massachusetts and dove onto the couch. The Pats were on at one. I was right where I needed to be.

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