Joshua Tree
© Tim Baskerville 2002
"The cities aflood,
And our love turns to rust.
We're beaten and blown by the wind,
Trampled in dust.
I'll show you a place,
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name."
Where the Streets Have No Name
from Joshua Tree by U2
"Cold hearted orb
that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white.
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion? . . ."
Late Lament
by Moody Blues
|
The Place
Joshua Tree National Park, at nearly 800,000 acres, lies at
the point where two deserts, two large ecosystems (whose characteristics
are determined primarily by elevation) meet - the Colorado
Desert, below 3,000 ft, in the eastern part of the park, and
the higher, moister, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert in
the western part of the park, and habitat of the Joshua tree,
Yucca Brevifolia. The western part of the park, where we will
be photographing at night, also includes the very surreal
geologic features that have become associated with the Joshua
Tree area. Joshua Tree became a National Monument in 1936,
remaining mostly a local or regional attraction, a well-kept
secret, but since becoming a National Park in 1994, its popularity
has rose and the numbers of visitors each year has increased.
As legend would have it, Mormon pioneers saw the limbs of
the Yucca trees and recalled the upstretched arms of the biblical
figure Joshua, leading them to the promised land, and named
them, Joshua Trees. Country-rocker Gram Parsons, whose name
has become synonymous with Joshua Tree, was similarly inspired
by this strange landscape, and traveled here often in the
1960s. The band U2, who in 1987 immortalized the area with
their LP, entitled simply Joshua Tree, saw similar connections
between this surreal, somewhat threatening landscape and the
actual, fragile ecosystem it represents and our own frail
attempts to find solitude, love, liberty, and freedom, realizing
often times that "We still haven't found what we're looking
for."
This is the dramatic landscape we will find ourselves visiting
this November (during the Full "Frost" Moon) - to
photograph the nocturnal beauty of Joshua Tree! We will photograph
around such picturesque and iconographic sites as Cap
Rock, Split Rock, Hidden Valley & the Live Oak areas.
Read an LA Times
article (PDF) about one of our recent Death Valley Workshops,
that appeared in the LA Times in October 2003.
Tuition and Schedule
Tuition is $495, with a 50% deposit due by November 15, 2004.
Final payment due two weeks prior to the start of the Workshop.
The daily schedule for this three-day Workshop (see the review
of our Death Valley Workshop from the LA Times) runs from
3pm to midnight - and later! This includes slide lectures
and discussions of technical considerations, before we go
out to photograph.
Participants are responsible for their own lodging and meals
- though we can make some recommendations where to stay in
Twentynine Palms, CA, at the entrance to the Park. Camping
is available within Joshua Tree National Park also, but you
need to reserve early.
Registration
More extensive information is included in our Registration
Form - which you can print out, and send or FAX in with
your deposit to Pacific Media Arts.
Additional Information about Joshua
Tree
We hope to see you in Joshua Tree! |
