...exhibition platform. I'm wondering if you might like to start by giving us a bit of background about the site that you are responding to in this work (namely, Death Valley and in particular the Goldwell Open Air Museum)?

Paul Catanese: Thanks, Vince – this is definitely an interesting format; I was very intrigued when approached regarding how a series of 30 (or 28 or 31!) images would be released one-a-day, glad to be part of the inaugural launch...

In terms of the site of Death Valley, and the Goldwell Open Air Museum - its an interesting place with a lot of history. Goldwell sits at the head of the Amargosa Valley in western Nevada. Its at about 3000' in elevation, and the valley is several dozen miles long. From the residency site – a former mining barn – you can watch storms roll in for hours. There's a sculpture park, and its also the site of a few ghost towns: Rhyolite has a number of standing masonry structures and is just behind the barn, and the Barn itself is essentially right on top of the site of the town of Bullfrog (named for a spectacular green mineral all through the area) – the only things left of Bullfrog are half of a jail, 1/8 of an icehouse, and tens of thousands of rusting cans. Just behind the barn are a few very steep mountains, but they've all been open-pit mined... to the east and south are huge tailings. It gets incredibly dark – the milky way is clearly visible, and the glow from Vegas, about 90 miles away, is the only urban light pollution you'll find. Its also important to note that the Nevada Test site is about 20 miles east (also east, Area 51 about 50 miles as the crow flies), and Death Valley just over the western ridge-line – about 6 miles.

I specifically wanted to work out there in the summer, in the hot month of June, when temperatures can soar – and did! What I was perhaps the most stunned by, more than the rugged geography,