other desert cities

In the late 1960's my grandfather Creed Chester Bowden built a small home in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree in southern California. I have been frequenting there as long as I can remember. It has always been a special place to retreat and just sit under the welcoming hands of the big sky. On the drive out there is a particular sign that reads 'other Desert Cities', with three arrows pointing out west. The direction of the music, towards the sanctuary of the desert, the road to creating.



I fell in love with the desert and all of its mysterious landscapes at a very young age riding old dirt bikes around as a kid exploring every fork in the road, every abandoned silver mine, every trail that led to nowhere. Photography, as well as music has become another voice in which I speak, like so many other artists. Other Desert Cities isn't a song or a band, or a person. It is the place in ones own soul that everyone carries with them. The place where we recluse to, the place where we subconsciously think within, the place where we keep our fears hidden and isolated from our loved ones. The place where we get the courage to take some risk and finally let them be known in order to be free.
-C Charles Bowden