zannah

Bonnieville Salt Flats, Utah. Foxy Brown 1984 Chevy van

Bonnieville Salt Flats, Utah. Foxy Brown 1984 Chevy van

The best rest stop in America. Sleep in your van on the salt flats.

The best rest stop in America. Sleep in your van on the salt flats.
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Aperture f/2.8 ISO 80 Shutter 1/1077 Focal Length 77/20

upload_date

Sep, 2017

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Summer 2020

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo at the Bonneville Salt flats in Utah. Going west on 80 the rest stop there is rated the #1 in the nation. You can drive out of the parking lot right onto the salt flats. Which I did and spent the night sleeping in the van with a spectacular 360 view of this amazing landscape.

Time

Traveling with my rescued greyhound, early morning were a part of his DNA. On this morning his whining to go out paid off. With the early morning light around 7am, I captured this image of our home away from home, a 1983 Chevy 150 van sitting in the middle of the cellular grid of the salt flats.

Lighting

Early morning light is delicate and worth getting up for.

Equipment

Shot on an Iphone 5c

Inspiration

From 2011-2015 I traveled all over the country, sometimes for 5 months other times 3 to 4 weeks to cross from coast to coast. I started an art project called "American Bones" traveling the guts of America to find her bones. To thread a narrative of our cultural identity, I was documenting landscapes, people, communities and architecture that was uniquely American. The great west with its surreal landscapes drew early explorers and created such lore of their findings it fueled, in part, the expansion of the nation to the western coast. From the canoes of Lewis & Clark, then covered wagons to station wagons, I found myself in the company of a new kind of American explorer #vanlife. Fueled by by the recession of 2008 and the desire to understand the complex identity of what American is today. So this image captures that explorer history repeating and being retold from a van.

Editing

When I started shooting in the 1980's it was all film. I shot 4x5, 2 1/4 and 35mm film. I took up digital photography late around 2007 shooting a cannon Rebel but when I got my new Iphone I found a tool that was always with me. While traveling alone, it was particularly a much needed asset. Instagram was just coming online and I found for processing quickly and having a consistent series, I went with shooting exclusively with the Iphone. Coming from a film background, my aesthetic is one of capturing a real moment, because you were there and made that decisive choice to shoot in that moment. So I do very little "photoshoping" of the image other than slight color correction. My photographic heroes are Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke White and Diane Arbus. They all represent an aesthetic of documentary style with grit and less gloss.

In my camera bag

I'm now exclusively an Iphone shooter. Sold my darkroom equipment and the bigger format cameras. I don't think its your equipment but a sharp eye that makes for an amazing photo, especially in the documentary genre.

Feedback

Get out, get out early and always have a camera on you.

See more amazing photos, follow zannah

zannah

zannah

Bonnieville Salt Flats, Utah. Foxy Brown 1984 Chevy van

The best rest stop in America. Sleep in your van on the salt flats.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow zannah

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