Today marks the 5th anniversary of Vincene Killen’s fall to cancer.
Some, but not all of you know that Vincene, my late wife, was my inspiration to pursue fine art photography from the Mojave Desert, and the Mojave National Preserve in particular. While driving back from the California Desert Protection Act Celebration at the Kelso Depot this Saturday, I found myself laughing aloud at these memories, because Vincene was more at home in a fine hotel then in a desert campsite, more at home in a well equipped kitchen then gnawing on oat bars while trail hiking or exploring four wheel drive trails.
However, Vincene, who thought drinking from a canteen was a learned skill, came to love the Mojave Desert and the Preserve quite naturally.
We explored old mine roads by four-wheel drive and found tiny water springs while hiking on faint trails. We celebrated the stillness, and noted how the magical quality of light united the starkly different geographic forms into an uneasy syncopation. Through these trips, we began to know that in this Gobi dry land, thunderclaps are rare, lightning strikes even less, and hard rain is an episodic event that creates gully-washing floods. To explain to others what we felt as we began to know the desert Vincene coined the phrase ‘Back to Loneliness.’ This then became my photographic theme for my work in the Mojave National Preserve and our commitment to photographically capture and interpret the solitude of yesterday and eons of yesterdays.
Sadly Vincene passed before many of my project images came alive in print, and of course how could either of us know ten how prophetic the title ‘Back to Loneliness’ would become.
As with any loved one, there is always a sense of loss, but there are also many fond memories to celebrate and recall. Thank you for sharing some of my past and Vincene’s love of the desert with you on this day of remembrance.
Bob Killen
http://www.bobkillen.com
http://twitter.com/BobKillen
Some, but not all of you know that Vincene, my late wife, was my inspiration to pursue fine art photography from the Mojave Desert, and the Mojave National Preserve in particular. While driving back from the California Desert Protection Act Celebration at the Kelso Depot this Saturday, I found myself laughing aloud at these memories, because Vincene was more at home in a fine hotel then in a desert campsite, more at home in a well equipped kitchen then gnawing on oat bars while trail hiking or exploring four wheel drive trails.
However, Vincene, who thought drinking from a canteen was a learned skill, came to love the Mojave Desert and the Preserve quite naturally.
We explored old mine roads by four-wheel drive and found tiny water springs while hiking on faint trails. We celebrated the stillness, and noted how the magical quality of light united the starkly different geographic forms into an uneasy syncopation. Through these trips, we began to know that in this Gobi dry land, thunderclaps are rare, lightning strikes even less, and hard rain is an episodic event that creates gully-washing floods. To explain to others what we felt as we began to know the desert Vincene coined the phrase ‘Back to Loneliness.’ This then became my photographic theme for my work in the Mojave National Preserve and our commitment to photographically capture and interpret the solitude of yesterday and eons of yesterdays.
Sadly Vincene passed before many of my project images came alive in print, and of course how could either of us know ten how prophetic the title ‘Back to Loneliness’ would become.
As with any loved one, there is always a sense of loss, but there are also many fond memories to celebrate and recall. Thank you for sharing some of my past and Vincene’s love of the desert with you on this day of remembrance.
Bob Killen
http://www.bobkillen.com
http://twitter.com/BobKillen
