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Jubilee Pass

Jubilee Pass
(Southern California)
In tens of thousands of images over the years, sometimes one forces its way back into consciousness by chance, and triggers a memory dump. Such was the case when I sold a print recently, made when I was still shooting film, probably close to 25 years ago. I had made an unplanned, impulsive trip with Gordy, my old pal of well over 50 years now, to the southern deserts of California. Those were the days when airline tickets were dirt cheap, and car rentals and places to sleep even cheaper. For two or three days we post holed through snow near Telescope Peak, sweated up and down the Mesquite Dunes, wandered the Zabriski badlands, the Bad Water salt flats, and any number of other pullouts that just looked good. As always, the need to see more drove us southwards, towards the Mojave and Joshua Tree. Death Valley’s grip held on till late in the day, and we had no idea the distance to the Shoshone motel booked for that night. Coming out of the Valley we hit Jubilee Pass at almost sundown, and I had to pull over for what I was seeing in the rear view. In my recollection I grabbed tripod and gear and ran up the hills to a place I thought looked good. A long lens crowded ridge lines of mountains against a California sunset, and Kodachrome 64 imparted the purple hue of majesty, in shades of Crayola marching westward. A timeless landscape below a timely sky. We would move on as always to dinner and further adventures, as was our custom, but not before savoring for a while the view we achieved, as was also our custom. And I returned home with a little piece of 2 x 3 celluloid that compressed miles and years into a moment. While it’s often hard to know what triggers an emotion within someone else in my artwork, for me it was easy. A friendship of years and miles in a moment. A toast to many more.

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Filename
Jubilee Pass
Copyright
©Ray Palmer
Image Size
2048x1377 / 1.8MB
Contained in galleries
West
Jubilee Pass<br /> (Southern California)<br /> In tens of thousands of images over the years, sometimes one forces its way back into consciousness by chance, and triggers a memory dump. Such was the case when I sold a print recently, made when I was still shooting film, probably close to 25 years ago. I had made an unplanned, impulsive trip with Gordy, my old pal of well over 50 years now, to the southern deserts of California. Those were the days when airline tickets were dirt cheap, and car rentals and places to sleep even cheaper. For two or three days we post holed through snow near Telescope Peak, sweated up and down the Mesquite Dunes, wandered the Zabriski badlands, the Bad Water salt flats, and any number of other pullouts that just looked good. As always, the need to see more drove us southwards, towards the Mojave and Joshua Tree. Death Valley’s grip held on till late in the day, and we had no idea the distance to the Shoshone motel booked for that night. Coming out of the Valley we hit Jubilee Pass at almost sundown, and I had to pull over for what I was seeing in the rear view. In my recollection I grabbed tripod and gear and ran up the hills to a place I thought looked good. A long lens crowded ridge lines of mountains against a California sunset, and Kodachrome 64 imparted the purple hue of majesty, in shades of Crayola marching westward. A timeless landscape below a timely sky. We would move on as always to dinner and further adventures, as was our custom, but not before savoring for a while the view we achieved, as was also our custom. And I returned home with a little piece of 2 x 3 celluloid that compressed miles and years into a moment. While it’s often hard to know what triggers an emotion within someone else in my artwork, for me it was easy. A friendship of years and miles in a moment. A toast to many more.
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