West Texas, 1992

I was producing a fund development brochure for a hospital in Lubbock, TX, and serving as both art director and photographer. I had saved hundreds of dollars by booking a plane ticket staying five days including Saturday night—that meant I had no commitments for Saturday, and a rental car with unlimited mileage. So at six in the morning I took off to explore the High Plateau, with a pair of Leicas on the passenger seat. I found the barren landscape fascinating (a horizon? There are no horizons in New England, except at the shore, the view is always just to the next hilltop). I headed west in a rainstorm that produced several good pictures, then just kept going. Did a little loop into New Mexico and headed north, took pictures of a flash flood in a small town, and circled back to Lubbock at the end of the day with, as I recall, 600 miles on the clock.