Desert Rose — Pilbara
Pilbara, Western Australia
2010
Edition of 50
Reflection
Hidden within the vastness of the Pilbara, mineral-rich waters have painted a flower into the desert floor. Desert Rose is a reminder that some of nature's most extraordinary patterns remain unseen until viewed from above.
Print information
- Edition
- Limited edition of 50, plus artist proofs.
- Archival pigment print on museum-grade fine art paper.
- Sizes
- Available sizes and presentation options provided on enquiry.
- Certificate
- Signed, numbered and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.
- Framing
- Framed, mounted and print-only options available depending on destination.
- Shipping
- Secure domestic and international delivery quoted individually.
Behind the Flight
Desert Rose began as a commercial assignment in Western Australia's Pilbara. I'd spent weeks watching weather forecasts, waiting for a series of cyclones to pass and for a small window of calm conditions to appear between them. The Pilbara can be an unforgiving place to fly, with strong winds, heat and endless distances, so when the weather finally settled, a local pilot and I fuelled his little Cessna and set off before sunrise.
He was every bit as enthusiastic about the flight as I was. His normal day involved flying newspapers to isolated communities scattered across the outback, so this was something completely different. We followed a lonely highway across what felt like an endless landscape of red earth, where the only sign of civilisation was the strip of hot bitumen stretching towards the horizon.
After photographing the client's site we slowed the aircraft for another pass and I reached over to open the small camera window beside me. Normally it would swing outward and sit happily in the airflow. Instead there was an enormous bang as the entire door tore itself from its hinges and disappeared into the desert below, clipping the right flap and striking the tail as it went.
The first priority was making sure the aircraft was still controllable. Everything felt normal, the controls responded as they should, and we agreed to head directly for the nearest airfield. Fortunately we'd been flying over empty country, so the door had fallen more than 2,000 feet onto an uninhabited stretch of desert.
Our new flight path took us across country neither of us had ever flown before. Then, almost without warning, this extraordinary shape appeared below us. An isolated estuary in the middle of the desert had collected iron-rich water and mineral deposits, creating what looked unmistakably like a giant flower blooming from the red earth.
It's still one of my favourite photographs. We never would have flown over this landscape had everything gone according to plan. Sometimes the images you remember most aren't the ones you've spent months preparing for—they're the ones that reveal themselves when you're forced to change course.
