Desert
Editorial
·
2026
24 Plates

Photography —
Claire Whitman
Styling —
Theo Vance
Model —
June Parker
We drove out before dawn every day for a week, chasing the twenty minutes when the desert turns from blue to gold. There were no reflectors, no lights — only four coats, the wind and a model who never once asked where to stand.
The edit kept the frames where the coats did something we didn’t plan: a sleeve caught by the wind, a collar full of sand, a shadow longer than the person casting it.
Client
Atlas Quarterly
Photography
Claire Whitman
Styling
Theo Vance
Model
June Parker
Hair & Makeup
Lena Ortiz
Location
Joshua Tree, CA
Camera
Medium format, 80mm

Plate 01
Day one · 6:40 AM

Plate 02
Day one · 7:05 AM

Plate 03
Day two · Noon
“We waited forty minutes for the wind to drop. It never did, so we used it.”

Plate 04
Day two · 12:20 PM
From the set
“The desert doesn’t do soft light. It does honest light.”
Claire Whitman

Plate 05
Day three · Dusk

Plate 06
Day four

Plate 07
Day five

Plate 08
Day six
