Our trip to salvation mountain was meant to be a large group of us including two models. We'd planned to do a nude shoot there.
With inspiration from the movie "Into the wild" we set out for the desert, it ended up just four of us Jesse, Raluca, Charlotte and I.
The drive out to the desert takes about three hours; Jesse listens to a lot of older music and it made for a very cool atmosphere. Driving along the highway we noticed a stopped car and asked the people standing beside it if we could take some pictures to which they agreed. It was a classic.
The day was so different, I felt like talking wasn't really necessary and looks could suffice.
After taking a few pictures we continued on our journey and everyone in the car but me fell asleep for a while.
Nearing the desert we touched the windows and they felt hot, checking the temperature gauge in the car I noticed it was at one hundred eleven degrees. The desert is so beautiful to me I've always had a fascination with it and even thought about having a house out there before.
The lighting was insane driving along the Salton Sea, there was so much wind and dust it dimmed the sun tremendously and swallowed us as we entered. We turned on songs by Eddie Vedder, the tunes brought pictures and emotions along with them from the aforementioned movie.
It felt like everyone's senses were heightened that day and emotions ran high, not bad emotions, just emotions. I had a sense of longing and felt very close to everyone in the car. I wanted to take off my shoes as soon as we got to salvation mountain, I thought.
We pulled up and it was one of the prettiest things, I stepped out and the hot desert wind hit my face, I felt so alive and honestly just wanted to take off all my clothes and feel absolutely free.
I couldn't help but notice the beauty of everyone around me—I get to work with so many beautiful people, physically and beyond—We took a few pictures and Charlotte took off her clothes so we could photograph the shots planned. We'd barely taken five photos when we were suddenly approached by a man yelling at us to leave, how he had called the police, that we were perverts for taking photos like that..."couldn't we see it said god right there"
He threatened to fight us and get "all of slab city to beat us up" we stood there dumbfounded.
All I could think was this is a place of peace, of love, and we were being cussed out and called perverts, there was no part of me that felt like the photos being taken or the moments shared were sexual or anything remotely like that.
It was a moment of beauty, and of expressing oneself. We stood there for a minute still in shock.
He wouldn't stop, he ran over to find our car and get the license plate. We left in a hurry, we were all silent. I suggested we drive to the desert where we could be alone.
We sat, felt the warm breeze and once again said very little.
I wanted to cry, I felt hurt. Sitting there feeling the wind was insane, yet so hard for me to explain, when I tell people about it I say...it just felt SOO much.
I think everyone felt a lot right then. A train passed, we took some pictures. I took some videos I thought I'd never use, we got in the car and we drove...we drove back to LA.
I don't recall much of the drive home.
