I love Land Art in general and especially when the focus is the desert, which, at the right moments, can look like a painting that’s melting. Photographer Jim Mangan’s new book, Bastard Child, and its related series, Time of Nothing, study the splendid isolation of the American Southwest, with photos taken with a 1976 Leica R3 SLR. From Christian Storm’s new Vice interview with him:
“Vice:
Your previous work featured humans in landscapes, but now you seem to have moved more toward documenting the landscape itself.
Jim Mangan:
Almost all the images (three images represent California, Wyoming, and Nevada) were shot in the Utah desert, which to me, strictly from a landscape standpoint, is the most interesting place on Earth. I’ve spent so much time exploring these different areas in the southern portion of Utah—each has its own very unique qualities and aesthetics, and, ultimately, sort of present themselves as separate planets even though they’re only 30 to 40 minutes away from one another. The imagery you see in the photos represents the places I kept getting drawn back to. Initially, I wanted to only see new locations, but as I searched I realized how special certain ones are. The more I kept going back to the same ones the more of connection I developed. I think if I was stripped of the privilege to spend time in these magical places it would be sort of like a girl I was totally in love with breaking up with me and never wanting to see me again—I would be totally devastated!”
