Only the Emptiness Remains, a photo from California, West

Photographer's Note

This abandoned gas station sits aside the main highway in Trona, a company town which does not appear to be prospering. The town sits on the "shore" of the giant white lakebed known as Searles Dry Lake (see the photo I posted yesterday) as if waiting for the water to return and the fun to begin. Trona is dominated by its chemical plants, which process the soda ash, borax and other chemicals taken from the lakebed. The place has an otherworldly feel, like a mining station on the moon (after massive NASA budget cuts)--as if one should keep a wary eye on the hilltops in case a phalanx of cyborgs should appear.

And no, the Trona Chamber of Commerce did not pay me to write this.

Trona is in the Mojave desert southwest of Death Valley, about 250 km northeast of LA at around 600 m elevation.

Floydian, manub has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

gaby (19819) 2006-05-29 15:43

Ken bonsoir - When I see this image, I remember Wim Wenders and Paris Texas - well done and great reflections -
Thanks
Rgs
Gaby

Floydian (30970) 2006-05-30 6:02

Hi Ken,
Normally we see the US as a busy country. Large cities, beautiful national parks. Almost never as in these kind of pictures you are presenting us. That's what i think is the strong factor in you pictures, there is also another US, the emtyness and the abandon places.
Fantastic docu-photo...very well seen..!!!
Regards, Henk
P.S
Paris Texas is a must seen, but for for me it has not much to do with this picture. The light and saturation in that movie is hard, which i really like, and the music from Ry Cooder is fantastic.

roamermark (1590) 2006-05-30 16:49

Hi Ken,
Boy your recent images have reminded me that foreign travel is not always necessary for great travel photography. I often get very befuddled with the familiar and think only the exotic makes good photos. You have shown lately that the landscapes (past and present) nearer to home can be just as artfully rendered.
Well done
Mark

Polonaise (5802) 2006-06-20 20:25

Traveling through United States, how often I ask myself the same question...HOW BIG is this magnificent country? With 300.000.000 people (well, including illegals) still seems to me such an emptiness. And then you hit some giant city and the impression is gone.
Whoa...What a terrific and vibrant country it is now.
Breathtaking traffic of gazillion cars on hundred-lanes highways. Ocean of buildings, factories, bridges...
And some time later...impression is back...
You're surrounded again by such a vast emptiness, that is beyond understanding for an average dweller in any European country.
And they are constantly saying...America IS that...America IS this..
What a waste of time, trying to describe America.
What a waste of time trying to know America... Especially with ten thousand new titles of books, albums, movies and TV programs about America attacking our senses every single year.
What we can do about it Ken?
Just post those photos...Chances are that after posting one million of them, someone will yell his lungs out: EUREKA...I GOT IT !!
Naaaah...not after mere million...

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