Matthew Besinger

More from Review Santa Fe.

© Matthew Besinger

Night photography is incredible for the way it soaks up even the slightest of light sources like a sponge, totally altering perception under an uncanny glow.

It can also be easily overlooked. Night photographs of subjects such as abandoned buildings and detritus aren't altogether uncommon, and a lot of it ends up amassed in the same dull lump; it's enough to discourage anyone from throwing themselves too far into the fire.

You know you've found something special when a person manages to add something to a wide open genre, with striking imagery created in a meaningful and dedicated way. Matthew Besinger spent five years making his series Annex The Desert; in his statement, he writes:

The Sonoran Desert is full of dangerous space. In the ranching town of Lochiel I was shot at, in Picacho I was encircled by a pack of wild dogs, on the border I was hit by tin cans thrown over the great tin wall. My trips were rerouted by forest fires, my tripod trapped by diamondbacks. I slept most nights on the side of the road in the seat of my car. Certain pictures are informed by the skies I could see as I fell asleep- and by dreams that were broken by the noise of a passing train.

© Matthew Besinger

I spent a good half hour hogging Matthew's table at the crowded Review Santa Fe portfolio walk. He's created a sample of the monograph he hopes to publish – a beautiful hardcover book full of his richly toned desert pictures, separated subtly into segments with two-page spreads of his paintings. Something about the work in book form completely entranced me and I couldn't stop turning the pages, one after another. I stopped at his table knowing little to nothing about his work and by the end of the book I was pretty blown away.

© Matthew Besinger

See more of Matthew's work here. (But I wish I could tell you to buy the book instead.)