Introduction

My project came about through a combination of life-long fascinations: the desert, shadows, and the role of humans on this planet. What can be learned when everything is removed from the equation except sun, earth, and man?

Two rocks sit alone together on the playa.

I did not know what I was expecting to find as we rolled up to the edge of Racetrack Playa. I had heard the stories of the rocks that mysteriously slide around the dry lakebed, as if animated by some natural or supernatural force, but the rocks themselves were not what my primary focus. What could be found from looking at what was left behind when an object comes between the sun and the playa and what could be learned from this?

Background

The shadow of an object can be a fascinating thing. My shadow can be my evil twin, the inverse of the equation of me, my anti-matter, my better half, my darker half, among other things. As you may have guessed, I am fairly easily amused. My shadow has always been a source of wonder for me. At times, it told me where I was going. Other times, it told me where I had been.

Shadows can simultaneously hide and reveal, clarify and distort, and they give some clue to our own permanent and yet fleeting role here on this planet. Nowhere are these relationships more obvious than on the playa. There, nature provides free of charge all of light and heat humans can handle. And the amount that we can handle is not that much. And that fact can tell us a lot about what how we live and what we do on a larger scale.

Truth Hidden And Revealed We wore hats and sunglasses hide our eyes and faces from the sun, but shadowing our eyes helped us to see better. As we ate lunch, we created shadows with towels, wood, and anything else we could find so that we would be able to rest in the shade. In short, there is a reason this area is called Death Valley. Humans, with our soft, squishy bodies composed mostly of water, just would not last very long here.

Kris smiles because her eyes are protected.

On a larger scale, this is how we live over the rest of the world. We spend countless amounts of time and energy isolating and protecting ourselves from nature. We live and work in buildings with insulation, climate control systems, covered parking, and indoor plumbing. We build aquaducts to places where there is little or no natually occurring water so that we can grow food there. Does this not seem a little counter-intuitive?

Distortions Clarified

Humans need to explore, to find out more about the world around them (and often the world not around them as well). People go to all kind of extremes just to know. We climb Mt. Everest without oxygen, we descend to the depths of the ocean where the pressure is thousands of times greater than at sea level. The reason humans do these crazy things is precisely because they do not know what is at the top of that mountain or in the bottom of that ocean trench. By nature, we seek to illuminate our surroundings, to learn that which was previously unknown.

While we like to cloak ourselves in shadow to hide from nature, we are also intent in knowing all there is to know about what might be lurking in the shadows in the natural world.

Off into the great beyond...

Now our journies are into space. Outer space has been called the final frontier by some. Still others are more interested in inner space, trying to discover what lies within our own cells and atoms. Both of these are noble pursuits indeed, but often these happen at the expense of the world around us. We still do not know much about the world we live in. Much of the oceans remain unexplored, organisms remain uncataloged and even undiscovered.

And yet we are moving now for a manned mission to Mars. Space is the consummate desert. It is cold, dry, and sustains no life (that we know of, at least). And space travel is incredibly bad for our soft and squishy bodies. Exposure to high amounts of radiation and no gravity wreak havoc on our bones and muscles. And that is only what we know about. Extended space journies could bring unforseen consequences that might make manned space travel something that exists once again only in science fiction.

Lessons Learned

Modern lifestyles by definition remove us from the grand scheme of nature. With few exceptions, the actions of most people and the policies of most governments say loud and clear that we do not get along with nature and indeed can barely manage to coexist peacefully.

Nature can be personified in our shadows quite effectively. We can run from them, we can be afraid of the dark, and deny that there is any connection between ourselves and the darkness that lurks at our feet. Or we can embrace the fact that we are linked and to sever that link would spell trouble for everyone.

Shadows on the playa were more than just shadows when I photographed them. This is what they said to me. What do they say to you?