The Photographer's Eye: A Creative Collective

TOM VANCISIN

Artist Statement:

Death Valley Below Sea Level

I grew up in Connecticut. Most of our family vacations were in New England. Our family never did the cross-country trips that many families did in the 1960s. The first time I saw the desert was a vacation to San Diego in 1987. During that trip I went to Palm Springs for the weekend with some friends. My only view of the desert was from the highway…not very impressive. It wasn’t until I moved out here two years later and became interested in photography that I started to venture out into the desert. Workshops to Death Valley and the East Mojave were eye opening. I had my Ah Ha moment seeing the beauty and variety of the desert landscape. I was hooked and have returned again and again over the course of 30+ years.
During Covid, Death Valley National Park was one of my escapes. I made multiple trips in 2020 and 2021. There are so many iconic locations in the park which I always seem to be drawn to photograph: Dante’s View, Badwater, Zabriskie Point, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Ubehebe Crater and Racetrack to name a few. However, on these trips I found myself looking down at what was beneath my feet. I started a photographic series of details of the ground itself, the variety of patterns and formations. In many cases, winer rains erase the patterns and formations, only to form again as the low-lying areas dry out. All photographs in this series are from locations in Death Valley that are below sea level.

Tom Vancisin