The statement that accompanied this latest personal project from Kremer Johnson aptly and somewhat hilariously addresses things we wondered about when we saw these images, so we decided to publish it in full:
The desert has long held a special fascination for us. The colors of the land and sky, the starkness of the landscape, and the seemingly endless open spaces — it all stirs up romanticized ideas of the American Southwest that we’ve had since we were kids watching cartoons and old movies at our grandparents’ houses. We’re struck even more though, by the people who choose to live there. So, we decided to do what any sane person would do during the recent heat wave. We loaded up a car full of gear and headed into the middle of it all with a plan to meet some of the people who choose to make the heat their home. From Mojave to the Bermuda Dunes and on down to Borrego Springs, we consistently encountered temps pushing 120 degrees seeking an answer to the age-old question, “Why do you live here?” The most common answer? “I don’t really know. It just sort of happened…”
