From Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter to David Muench, many photographers have been attracted by the desert landscape.
The main reasons that I love the desert are its simplicity, quality of light due to low humidity in the air, and the ability to get away from the masses; if only you hike a mile. The absence of vegetation reveals the underlying geological structures; the bare bones of Earth laid out in front of us.
On a recent trip, we almost got trapped because of Covid-19 travel restrictions. For a second, I considered renting a campervan (aka RV) and hiding in The Sheltering Dessert. This is the title of a book by Henno Martin (1910-1998), a German professor of geology who, along with Hermann Korn and their dog named Otto, lived for two years in the Namib desert.
In 1935, Martin and Korn emigrated to South-West Africa (now Namibia) and worked there as geologists. Fearing internment by the South African government in 1940, they decided to flee into the Namib desert and wait out the war in a remote canyon. They went prepared, with a truck, wind generator, radio, guns, essential tools and supplies, but no camera*. They even became each other’s dentists but had to return to Windhoek after Korn contracted beriberi (thiamine deficiency). In 1957 Martin wrote “Wenn es Krieg gibt gehen wir in the Wüste”, a memoir of their experience living in the desert. The book was later translated into English and, in 1992, used as inspiration for a film. The film is way different from the book and shot in the wrong places, though at least in Namibia.
The book describes the struggle for survival but also contains romanticized descriptions of the nature surrounding them. It is also an account of how much civilized life can be reduced to the minimum: The conditions of civilized life were dangerously unbalanced; they demanded primarily an antlike cooperation, yet in man there was a subconscious urge to live the life of a beast of prey. It seemed quite likely to us that one day our whole civilization would be destroyed by this contradiction.
A good read in times when we have to reduce our social contacts. Still remembering the days when the Sylvania Flashcubes were the dernier cri, I wouldn’t count on not getting seriously sick. Stay safe. SR
*Though Martin writes nothing about a stockpile of Charmin Ultra Soft.
