A hauntingly beautiful visual journey through the Mojave Desert’s abandoned homesteads and mining ruins, revealing humanity’s failed conquests and nature’s enduring power.
In Southern California, settlers have long ventured into the Mojave Desert, seduced by its capacious horizons and fragile beauty, only to be abased by the intense heat, bone-dry terrain and maddening isolation. Industry, intent on extracting the land of its essence, set up operations, then walked away when there was nothing left worth taking. Civilization has always pushed into the frontier, and quite often the frontier pushes back. Areas like the forsaken homesteads of Wonder Valley and the abandoned mining operations of Joshua Tree seem simultaneously depleted yet majestically audacious in their quiet desolation, juxtaposed against the breathtaking landscapes of the desert. Abandoned California: The Mojave Desert is a collection of photographs and writings by Andy Willinger that capture the majesty of these forsaken buildings, vehicles and artifacts of the Mojave’s once vibrant past. These sites have become meaningful, unintended statements - not only as vibrant, ephemeral artworks of minimal beauty, but as testament to the impact on nature by humanity. Undaunted, the Mojave Desert continues to brashly flaunt its skill in overcoming man’s attempts to conquer it.