Photographer and sculptor Sam Davis at Mystery Ranch

Interview by Abel Caballero Jr.

Abel: Sam, it’s nice to meet you here at the Mystery Ranch. I hear you have been coming here and filming in the surrounding desert since the early 2000s. You first started working during graduate school at UNLV, then later when you taught at Art Center in Los Angeles, and presently, teaching at Southern Utah University and living in Cedar City. What do you like about working in the desert?

Sam Davis: What I like about working in the desert is the silence. There are no people. It’s about the absence - of people, of structures, of man-made things. When there are no people it’s leveling, it’s a clean stage. So when you put something there – it is punctual. When you come upon an abandoned object in an isolated landscape it becomes obvious that something is out of place, and that creates a natural tension, a drama that is out of time.

Abel: So, is it safe to say that you use the desert as a storytelling device in your narrative imagery, almost like one of the characters?

Sam Davis: It is a major character in that it is a player in the drama and also a witness to the unfolding of adventure and tragedy of other characters, like humans and other creatures. I find that there are four archetypal landscapes for epic adventure stories: ocean, forest, desert, and sky. Each has its own drama and character, but all are vast, inexplicable and sublime.

Abel: What kinds of considerations go into working the way you do in the desert environment?

Sam Davis: Well, first of all, I’m out there to have fun and have an interesting experience. Second, interacting with live models, props, the landscape and the weather can be challenging, so not getting hurt is a big consideration. Everyone I work with in my photos is also an artist – they are active collaborators. I wouldn’t take anyone out there in the first place that didn’t already know a little something about the desert and what to expect. People need to be up for a bit of an adventure.

Abel: Your characters often portray adventurers that are heroes in the midst of a tragic story. Your artist models are collaborators in the story – how does that collaboration work?

Sam Davis, Apogee, 2017. Courtesy the artist.

Sam Davis: Water, Heat, Wind. Exhaustion. Heavy space suits. I’ve had models get claustrophobia in them, and they can’t move properly or speak from inside the helmets, so we use a lot of gestures and sign language. It’s hard work, sometimes disorienting, and it takes resolve and determination to see it through. Artists are used to that in their own work – they are heroes and adventurers and risktakers. And through the trials we encounter on the shoot, they and I begin to understand the character more that they are embodying.

Able: What does the Mystery Ranch mean to you as a desert environment?

Sam: It’s high up and as far back as you can get. And there’s a view – you can see everything around – it creates distance and perspective. You feel safe while being entirely in the wild. My dad always told me, “Find an elevated position with a clear line of site.”

These landscapes are places of infinite possibility, where viewers can believe in the mysterious or supernatural. The desert, especially, draws me in to create alien planets, or lost worlds, or misplaced astronauts – and they are all believable in a way, because of the vastness and isolation. The extremities of the desert take on an otherworldly quality, and you can push that in stories.

Abel: Where does this use of the desert in your dramas come from? Something in your childhood? Family trips?

Sam Davis: We lived in Pensacola, Florida, away from the desert. But I grew up in front of the TV playing with army men and rockets, and my introduction to the desert landscape came from Wiley Coyote and Rockford Files. Toys in the foreground, TV in the background – that’s what I am recreating with my sculpture and photo narratives. It’s all fantasy and memory and nostalgia.

Originally from Pensacola, Florida, Sam Davis received his BFA from the University of Florida in Creative Photography and an MFA in Photography and Sculpture from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Sam creates images that reference his love of family history (his father had once been a participant in an atomic test during the 1950’s, while other family members worked on the first submarines during the civil war) coupled with a playful curiosity of popular and kitsch culture. Davis creates images that he hopes will cause the viewer to pause and question while at the same time provide a pathway for the viewer into another frame of thought-to proactively imagine. He has worked as a graphic artist at WSRE-TV in Pensacola, taught at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and at Ringling College of Art and Design. He currently lives in Cedar City, Utah and is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Southern Utah University. www.samdavisart.com

Abel Caballero Jr. is a writer and desert historian with a focus on Clark County, Nevada. His areas of interest include gold and turquoise mining, desert lore and 19th century camp cooking. A long-time Searchlight area recluse, he is a direct descendent of one of the town's original hard rock miners, and has been a regular visitor to the Mystery Ranch since Leroy and Mary Reynolds built it in 1966.

More about United Catalysts’ Mystery Ranch here.

Posted by Wendy Kveck January 6, 2020.