ROBERT MORRIS PHOTOGRAPHY

Schmidt's Fotoshop (Detail of Facade), Taft, California, 2006

The inspiration for the photographic work of Robert Morris has come both from what he observes in the physical world and from the inner world of fantasy and myth. Robert's main interest has long been the history of art and architecture, and his work before 2000 concentrated on the visually harmonious towns, formal gardens, and historic buildings of Europe. In the first years of the 21st century he focused on his native California and nearby states, where he sought out and photographed colorful and quirky relics of the recent past, some of them abandoned and decaying, others still clinging to life. Eventually, however, he could no longer stand making road trips to the deteriorating towns where many of these subjects are found, so he turned his attention elsewhere.

Since 2009, Robert has been creating "Imaginary Landscapes," a series of scenes with themes inspired largely by mythology, art, literature, and his own fantasies. Since he currently resides in Joshua Tree, California, many of these scenes have desert backgrounds, which serve as stage settings for an unlikely combination of architectural elements and people.