Beau Simmons American, b. 1990

Artist Journal Entry:
While working out logistics for my new artwork series, Mojave, this concept was one of the more challenging production sets to pull off. The final image you see here was only captured once on a roll of 120mm film. Weeks prior to this, I knew I wanted to have an old phone booth built outside of this classic diner while parking the car at the perfect angle to not block the cowboys staged in the backdrop. I didn’t have any idea what the location looked like in person nor had any time to scout before the day of filming. I had to work with what few images I could find online, various angles taken from Google Earth, and a notepad which I sketched on to give me a general idea. On set, we spent about an hour setting up the phone booth in the perfect spot, followed by adjusting the two vehicles at the correct angle. We used a 1969 Ford Galaxie 500 and a 1971 Ford F-250 Pickup. Once the vehicles were in place, I began posing the cowboys in the background and the two models last. Looking through my camera viewfinder felt like taking a step back into 1975. Everything fell perfectly into place. The styling of the outfits down to the props placed around the set. It was an incredible moment to have come to life with barely any reference to go off of. I hope this artwork takes you through a nostalgic daydream as it does for me.