Boneyards, Beaters, and Nude Bathers: Adventures in the American Desert with Scott Klinger

For more than 20 years, photographer, artist, and Atlas Obscura Adventurer Scott Klinger has used his camera as a license and excuse to explore the stranger corners of the American West. His work has taken him to the chaotic world of the Gambler 500, alongside the improbable machines and characters of the 24 Hours of Lemons Rally, into natural hot springs down forgotten desert trails, and he is one of the few photographers given permission to photograph inside the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base , where thousands of retired military aircraft sit preserved beneath the Arizona sun.
In Boneyards, Beaters, and Nude Bathers: Adventures in the American Desert, Klinger shares photographs and stories from a career spent documenting the offbeat cultures, landscapes, machines, and people that exist beyond the familiar version of the West. More than a photography talk, it is a look at curiosity as a form of exploration and what can happen when a camera gives you an excuse to stop, ask questions, follow the dirt road, and enter places you might otherwise pass by.

Scott Klinger’s work has been exhibited internationally for more than two decades and is held in the collection of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan. He is a Professor of Photography and Chair of Media Studies at Palomar College in San Diego.

This program was organized by Reymundo Perez #1219.