Smudgy Window, Gerlach, NV, 2026 shot from a window at Planet X Pottery studio. Worth a visit!
"I think you are another of these desert-loving English … There is nothing in the desert, and no man needs nothing." — Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) says to T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Far be it from me to contradict historical fiction. But I suspect Faisal never wandered into Sinai with a camera. Then again, neither have I. Yet, I was exhilarated by my brief desert sojourn in mid-September. A friend and I traversed northern Nevada's Black Rock Desert (BRD) after Burning Man, a weeklong sensory overload of enormous art installations, pounding music, and alt living. We arrived unfashionably late.
As we toted our cameras into BRD, crews dismantled the remains of Black Rock City, the temporary base for an annual gathering of 70,000 “burners” on the dusty desert playa. Though Burning Man isn’t my cuppa tea, I loved the few remaining Steampunk-inspired mobile art installations. Great photographers, such as Dina Litovsky, have documented that gathering in all its glory.
I get Black Rock’s appeal. It is more compact than the better-known, four-times-larger Death Valley National Park. The weather isn’t nearly as extreme (though famously, it can turn into a mud bath). Death Valley is more ecologically diverse, but Black Rock also offers compelling light, though with fewer scenic vistas.
Instead of camping out in the desert, huddled in RVs or vans, we stayed in the nearby town of Gerlach, which punches well above its weight in quirkiness. Aside from the occasional jackrabbit, the playa and surrounding scrub have little wildlife. I saw more shotgun shells than birds or birders.
Shotgun Camper, Black Rock Desert, NV, 2026. My wife asked if this was a scene from Breaking Bad.
One highlight for us was visiting Planet X Pottery on the outskirts of Gerlach. The owners, John & Rachel Bogard, not only have a great desert view from their studio—they also make gorgeous art. But I’m glad they didn’t clean one particular window. This photograph, Smudgy Window (Gerlach, NV, 2026), was selected for the upcoming International Juried Exhibition, opening 4 to 6 p.m. on Dec. 5th, 2026, at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California. See you there?