Stopping in Panamint Valley

Longtime readers will have seen this photo a number of times. I took it while driving the Trona-Wildrose Road, in Panamint Valley, CA, in 1999. In an interview for the wonderful blog Gilded Birds — which canvasses "contemporary ideals of beauty" from a range of artists, musicians, and writers — I try to explain why this snapshot obsesses me. Forgive the gratuitous Wagner and Schopenhauer references: I am in that place.