Labesl

In the high desert above Palm Springs, Morongo Basin covers 31,000 acres. 29 Palms highway runs through it, and near an entrance to Joshua Tree national park is a roadhouse called ‘The Saloon’. From bikers to hikers, cowboys (real ones I might add) to hippies, the place has a vibe like no other I’ve ever experienced. Booze, Pool, Food, Music…the list goes on and on. While enjoying the perks one day, I noticed this corrugated metal facade covered with ‘stickers’ in the parking lot. I spent quite some time looking at it, and my mind wandered imagining the incredible diversity of people who wanted to leave a mark of their visit on this wall. I ’snapped’ this image. Sometimes this photographer enjoys simply documenting a subject, content to be an ‘image historian’ if you will. Nothing fancy here, but if these small pieces of paper could talk I know they would have a lot to say. I walked away from capturing these remnants of many, many lives lived, all of which intersected in some way. The evidence of those encounters is on this piece of metal outside a bar in the Mohave Desert.