Here today

...gone tomorrow, even empires crumble to the sea.

Yesterday I did what is most likely my last photo shoot on the west side of Harper Lake, a dry lake bed in the Mojave desert and community once known as Lockhart, which was also a test site and secret airstrip for Howard Hughes in the early 40's. 

Pearl and I have shot out here quite often recently because we know that in a year or so all this will be gone, replaced by large solar concentrator fields. The current fields are expanding and the company has either bought or will employ eminent domain to acquire all the land needed for the expansion.

I've seen places come and go especially in the desert, a few communities turn into ghost towns mostly for the complete lack of interest in the land. Lockhart will not be given this dignity, in March 2010 Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure to help "solar project developers meet environmental obligations." Read into this what you will. The project is moving forward and yesterday we were met with miles of fence. This expansion has displaced some of Pearl's family and taken one of my favorite locations, so it is personal. Awhile back I brought my daughter out here so she could see it as it is, another casualty in the ever increasing human domination.