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High & Dry

High & Dry is photographer Osceola Refetoff's collaboration with writers Christopher Langley and Jack Eidt exploring the desert and the people who live there. The myth of the West is charged with hope and ambition, yet the current reality reflects a patchwork of struggling communities, dreamers, dropouts, and military-industrial compounds.

Balancing images and words with the personal and historical, High & Dry focuses on the remnants and the future of human activity across these vast open spaces — territory that is becoming increasingly dominated by mining, immense wind and solar arrays, and the controversial dynamics of critical resource allocation. To explore more High & Dry, visit desertdispatches.com.

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William 'Burro' Schmidt Cabin (at left) and Abandoned Caretaker's House, Infrared Exposure, 2011 | Photo: Osceola Refetoff
William 'Burro' Schmidt and His Tunnel to Nowhere
High & Dry explores prospector William "Burro" Schmidt's half-mile long tunnel in Last Chance Canyon in the Mojave Desert. Schmidt spent thirty-two years single-handedly drilling his tunnel through solid granite.
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High & Dry: A Collaboration Surveying the American Desert
A partnership of writing and photography, "High & Dry" surveyes the legacy of human enterprise in the California desert.
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