A few weeks ago a friend of a friend suggested I look at the blog of photographer Raul Gutierrez. I finally had some spare time to check it out, and this guy’s work is so stunning I just had to share it with all my readers. Over the past 15 years, Gutierrez has traveled the world in search of great images, focusing on the deserts and mountains of China’s Western borders.
Of his work, Gutierrez says, “In these dusty forgotten places I found way stations between cultures where one can see the past and future simultaneously. One year a road is made of dirt. A year later it is gravel. Three years later it is a four lane highway. Ancient cities are razed and rebuilt with breathtaking disregard for history. Land which was open for nomads is fenced and mined. Seeing these changes over such a short time is a perspective that is at once disorienting and tragic. I try to make images that show these things or at least some of the emotional truths behind them, because I know that by the time I return everything will be almost unrecognizable.”
Gutierrez refers to his pilgrimages as Travels Without Maps – it’s not hard to figure out why he’s my kinda guy. View his portfolio on Gutierrez’s web site at: http://www.mexicanpictures.com/projects.htm.
