Just Another Day at the Office
“Heading into the Cirque,” Great Basin National Park. Photos by Deon Reynolds, 2022.
By Deon Reynolds
This image was created while my wife Trish and I were participating in the Darwin Lambert Artists in Residence Program at Great Basin National Park in 2007. We started our day hiking the Baker Creek/Grey Cliffs trail, and it was a gray, dull overcast day, great for hiking but not the kind of light I was looking for photographically. Hiking along the trail we stopped at a clearing, looking up towards the weather happening on a totally obscured Wheeler Peak. Suddenly, we noticed the mountains rapidly appear and just as fast disappear. Wow! Trish and I looked at each other and said we should go up there!
We hiked back to our van and drove the Scenic Drive to the trailhead parking lot at nearly 10,000 feet. The place was completely devoid of human activity and with good reason as the last couple of miles up Scenic Drive was solid ice with blowing snow drifting over it. We climbed into the back of the van to better prepare ourselves for what was happening outside. We suited up with expedition cold weather gear and stuffed appropriate camera equipment into my day pack. The temperature was in the single digits and accompanied by howling winds!
We did some stretches and started our way up the Glacier Trail, on our way to the Bristlecone Pine Grove. The first few miles of the trail we were in the cover of forest, keeping us mostly protected from the wind. We arrived in the Bristlecone Pine Grove and spent quite some time making photographs. Now and then, bright flashes of light would emanate from the direction of the Cirque. That light show was too enticing, so I started up the Glacier Trail towards the Cirque. It was so treacherous with thick ice covering everything and snow and sleet blowing in my face as I was drawn faster and faster up into the Cirque. I could hear Trish saying something about "wait for me!”, but the light was happening so fast I needed to keep moving.
I was mostly on all fours to make headway. I had been making a few photographs along the way, but stopped at this very point as everything seemed to be coming together. The light was at times almost like a strobe flashing across the mountains. It was mesmerizing to have experienced nature in action in such a dramatic and beautiful way. By the time Trish made it to me, the light was done, and it was back to dark gray overcast and gale force winds.
Deon Reynolds is a photographic artist using the power of imagery to bring the past to the present while celebrating the possibilities for the future. Exploring both the physical and visual worlds, his curiosity allows him to find beauty while documenting the environment and how man interacts with it. Recently, Deon has collaborated on several large-scale, temporary, photographic public art installations in Elko and Carson City, and rogue artworks around Nevada. His portfolio, Harnessing the Wind, is included in the Archive Collection of the Center for Art + Environment. Images from that portfolio were included in the show, Extraction, at the Nevada Museum of Art in 2019. Learn more about the art of Deon Reynolds at deonreynolds.com or follow his blog.