Prada Marfa — YSP.001

Hey, I warned you
It's a mess
She's a hurricane and you are Florida
She's California and you're an earthquake

-FL, CA by The Rocket Summer

In this first installment of Your Serving of Photography, I’ll share some of the events and details about how this image of Prada Marfa, an art installation located outside of Valentine, Texas, came to be. Subjects that fall under the category of “The Hand of Man” are not ones that I photograph all that often, but I do believe that these subjects can be enhanced by the beauty of the natural world—this is one of those subjects.

Image Details: Building and Landscape: 1/40 s, f/2.8, ISO 100; Clouds and Sky: 35mm, 1/100 s, f/2.8, ISO 100 (Nikon D200 with Nikkor 35mm f/1.8).

This story of this image goes back almost 10 years, to March 2016. For the first time, my wife and I had traveled to The Big Bend region of Texas for spring break. We bounced around, driving in and out of Jeff Davis, Presidio, and Brewster counties with no real itinerary or schedule holding us accountable. One afternoon we drove out to Fort Davis to view the national historic site before having a milkshake at a local drugstore and soda fountain. Then we passed the Rattlers and Reptiles museum that, unfortunately, wasn’t open that day for some reason. I wish it had been open to visitors, considering that it is now permanently closed, as of November 2024.

I specifically remember that the area around Fort Davis felt the most desolate compared to the other places we visited, especially after heading out of town toward Valentine, Texas. At one point we hadn’t seen any cars on the road for miles and miles and miles (shall I go on?); so, I set up my GoPro camera in the road, drove away out of sight, then turned around to came back to drive our truck over the camera. Check out that video here.

During the time it took to execute that, no other vehicles had driven over the camera, we hadn’t encountered any cars moving in either direction, and I recovered the camera and checked the footage before finally seeing another motorist.

After filming the drive-over footage we continued on toward Valentine, approaching from the southeast. More cars started to show up on the road and as we came closer to our next destination, Prada Marfa, there were several cars parked on the sides of the road. We passed by with Prada Marfa on our left and drove a little farther down the road and turned around and parked on the same side of the road as the art installation itself. Once we parked it was apparent that most of the visitors were either still inside or merely staying close to their vehicles, which we felt was a bit odd. We came their to see Prada Marfa—not to stay in the truck. So, we headed toward the building, passing by the others to get closer, and only then did we see why everyone else was waiting. A singer donning a jean jacket with a guitar and a microphone was being filmed with Prada Marfa as the backdrop. Just as soon as we arrived and saw him singing—it was over. The musician and crew (two or three more people) started packing up the gear into a van with “The Rocket Summer” painted on it. We weren’t able to talk to the singer at all, but the crew was very personable and spent a few moments talking with us. From what I remember, the solo act and crew were making their way to Florida, but had stopped in Texas to film at Prada Marfa.

At that time we didn’t know that they were filming a music video for one of his songs called “FL, CA” that would end up on YouTube. It wasn’t until several months later I searched “The Rocket Summer” and found out that the video posted online was the one being filmed when we were there that day. The music video for FL, CA (acoustic) by The Rocket Summer is below if you want to give it a view.

Luckily, after the excitement subsided, the light was starting to become quite exquisite for a lovely bit of photography. If you watched the music video above you can tell that there is an area of dirt and sand in the front of Prada Marfa, but it is hardly visible in the photograph. This is because I made the photograph from the other side of the highway and lowered the tripod so the roadway arched upward and cover up the area in front of the building. Just a sliver of dirt and rock was left visible above the road and below the building to show that it wasn’t sitting directly on the road and it also leaves the viewer not realizing how far from the road the building actually sat.

The final image came together as two exposures—one for the building and the light inside and a separate one for the beautifully lit sky and colorful clouds.The original photo used for the building is shown here with the yellow hue on the horizon, which plays off the interior lighting of the building. However, patiently allowing more time to pass permitted the sun, which was off to the right of the building, to dip closer to the horizon. More clouds moved in and caught the light that had transitioned to a soft orange-red color as it moved through more of the atmosphere. This looked better than having dark, gray clouds in the background.

Original exposure for the building to be used in the final photograph.

Final image with edits applied. blending the sky and buliding exposure.

There are parts of the original photograph that I like. That particular exposure allowed the detail of the items inside the building to be easily seen, but I do think the color contrast of the blue sky and the orange-tinted clouds work together better for the final image. That led me to blend the sky from the later exposure with the earlier one for the building. Some final dodging and burning for emphasis and the removal of some distracting elements gave the final image.

This is one of those images in my archive that I go back to often. I’ve almost printed it big to hang in my home many times. It brings back so many memories from that trip in 2016—of which here I only shared a few—and I can’t wait for my next trip out to The Big Bend. If you’ve never been out that way, it’s definitely worth the drive.

I’d love to know what you think. Have you ever been to see Prada Marfa? Do our image preferences align or do you prefer the version with the darker clouds and overall yellow tones? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Thank your for visiting and taking the time to read this post. I appreciate it more than you know.

I hope you’ll come back again for another installment of Your Serving of Photography!