Noel Kerns' photostream  

Proud to announce that a ten-image collection of my work is now available for purchase through the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art. The prints are available in 12" x 18" and located in the Museum Shop, just to the left of the main entrance.

The Fort Worth MOMA is located at 3200 Darnell Street, Fort Worth, Texas. If you're in the area, stop on by and check them out, or if you see one you like, pick one up!

The enormous Lockhart General Store sits gutted and abandoned in the virtual ghost town of Lockhart, California. Two stories high and with the roof missing, it looks more like a gymnasium or inner-city playground inside than a retail store.

Lockhart is not a place you wind up by accident; it's well off the beaten path, but accessible by either Harper Lake Rd from CA-58, or from Hinkley, CA via the OLD CA-58 route, now referred to as "Santa Fe Avenue", which is a bit of an odd name, since it's nothing more than 9 miles of wide dirt road running through and around absolutely nothing. To be fair though, the road WAS in nice shape; even in my little midsize rental car, I could crank it up past 70 mph and the road was as smooth as an interstate.

There's nothing quite like the serenity of nights by yourself, out in the middle of the desert, far away from anywhere and anyone. Try it...you'll see.

Large On Black

Night, 2/3 moon, CTO-gelled flashlight & blue-gelled strobe.

Gas Station at the remote Mojave Tropico Movie Set, on the western edge of the Mojave Desert.

Large on Black

Night, full moon, CTO-gelled flashlight.

When I planned a stop at this abandoned gas station across the CA-58 from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of Southern California, I had envisioned stopping only long enough to grab a quick southeast elevation shot of the building and move on. But I found myself compelled to take several other angles of the building, shooting for close to an hour. I especially liked the way this perspective exaggerated the already prominent canopy.

Large On Black

Night, 3/4 moon, red-gelled strobe.

If Roy's Motel in Amboy, California is one of the most remote, desolate spots along Route 66, it's because 10 miles to the east, the Road Runner's Retreat is THE most remote, desolate spot on the old road.

This long-abandoned diner / gas station complex must surely have been a mandatory stop for virtually every motorist heading west on 66...a literal oasis of food, fuel and shade in the middle of the harsh Mojave Desert.

An interesting note about the colors on the bottom edges of the two signs...while it probably looks like I changed gels to strobe the two different signs, fact is, I didn't. The condition of the bottom of the upper sign (heavily rusted, no paint left) versus the lower sign (little to no rust, sheet metal gray & teal paint) created two distinctly different color effects with the same pink-gelled strobe.

Large on Black

Night, full moon, 4 pops of a pink-gelled strobe, two per sign (one left, one right), fired while standing about 10 feet behind the right post of the sign, with the strobe itself carefully positioned to obscure it from the camera.