Call me irresponsible, if you must. Lying out here on the hot, dry dunes of New Mexico's White Sands. A sky full of clouds the size of cathedrals. Just me and Lucien Clergue and Lucien's 35mm Minolta. No lights, no distractions and no noise. He likes to shoot in the silence. He says the desert helps him think. As for me, I'll do what he asks: Lie here, walk there. So quiet! So still! So hot! Is this bliss, or what?
What is it about sun and sand that turns the mind to fantasy? Did Lucien have fantasies about photographing naked women in the desert when he was an accounting clerk for a French wine-and-cheese company, 30 years ago? I hope so. You can tell that he's a man with a head for figures. Now he travels the world, the desert worlds of New Mexico and Morocco, bringing life to his dreams--and mine. Yours, too, I hope.
Reach for the sky," he said, and I could almost touch it. And then: "Climb that tree." And I thought, What a ticklish proposition. All those silvery little leaves and trailing twigs. Lucien says the light in his home town of Arles may have worked wonders for its most famous resident, painter Vincent van Gogh, but for him the magic is out here, under the skies of New Mexico. Next year, the Sahara. Or is it the Gobi?
