The Negev and Judean Desert, in Israel
Although I come from a family of photographers, it was only in my late fifties that I started to photograph. It happened slowly, taking pictures while hiking in the desert. But my becoming a hiker too was a long process. In my twenties and thirties, I could not imagine myself as a hiker on remote desert and mountain trails – or for that matter, as a visual artist, a writer or an open-water swimmer. Over the years, I was able to realize these vague longings in circuitous ways, through a process of slow, inner unfolding. I had to nurture my confidence, taking each small step to overcome my fears of the desert, my fear of heights, of traveling to far-off regions of the world without losing my balance.
For me, the desert is not only intimately tied to Thanatos, it is also very much the realm of Eros. The desert’s textures and spaces evoke visceral memories from a distant if not primordial past; I re-appropriate my body as a source of knowledge of the subversive power of the senses, a power that enables artistic creation. My lens tries to probe this knowledge.
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Oh, so love these photos, this exotic, erotic landscape. Thank you sooooooooooo much!!!
Lilith Rogers
thanks so much for your appreciation of my desert photos, to all of you who wrote here. You might want to know that I just created a new website with more photos of the desert as well as texts: http://www.ritamendesflohr.com
I will be happy if you visit!
Your work is on the highest level and inspires me to have a better life and remember nature as my guide. Thank you!
Stunning and beautiful photographs by a brilliant artist and writer.
Oh, I don’t know this desert, but I know “my” desert…central Nevada and Utah.
It is not only erotic, but mystical, a felt sense of presence and nuture….
It’s a dream….being out there, on a two lane road, with no car in any direction
is heart opening…the lack of thought-the almost ringing in the air, the birds, if lucky, sighting a coyote….
as wonderful as walking through desert canyons — slowly enough to revel in the textures and become intimate with patterns of color — thanks for this experience!
any way to save/keep these images? Is that what “Pin it” does? I’d love to add them to my background on computer, and even make online jigsaw puzzles from a few — at a cost???
Fabulous. I feel as if I have just walked — carefully — through an amazing world. Thank you Persimmon Tree and thank you Rita.
Wow! What a spectacular place, and I love how you’ve captured all the flow and movement of the land.
thank you Elizabeth. The photos are actually not of one place, but from hikes in different desert gorges.
I’d love to see that land.