At night, the desert brings a sense of calm. There is a stillness—yet you can feel the world turning. That’s how photographer Marcus Doyle describes the nocturnal desert landscape.
Doyle’s Convergence exhibition is on view at Rubine Red Gallery in Palm Springs through Thursday, June 4.
“I’ve seen a lot of desert photography, but when I look at Doyle’s, I see quality and craftsmanship, without AI or filters,” said Jason Howard, owner of Rubine Red Gallery. “It’s (like) 2001: A Space Odyssey otherworldly—cool scenes from an alien set. His photographs are not just unusual and interesting, but exciting and different. We’re proud to show his art.”
Doyle uses no filters, and none of the work is computer-manipulated. He uses a long-exposure, low-light technique and does little or no editing to produce large photographic prints. He uses artificial light to transform the landscape into something surreal.
He has produced several books, including Night Vision: Intimacies of an Unblinking Eye, and The Accidental Tourist, a selection of images taken during his time in the U.S. Doyle’s show at Rubine Red spans his 30-year career.
He captures the unique shapes of the rocks at Joshua Tree and other desert landscapes like nobody else.
“At night, you see these massive boulders that have been there for thousands of years,” Doyle said. “They look like they were intentionally placed there or (are) about to roll off. But during the day, they look flat; you don’t notice it the same way.”
The Light and Space movement burst onto the California art scene during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was a collaboration of art and technology to create immersive, kinetic light experiences, defined by experiments in laser scanning, diffraction and photography, often aimed at transforming viewer perceptions. Viewers will notice that influence in Doyle’s work. His motivation for these images stems from growing up in the 1980s and watching science-fiction movies and television shows.
“My favorite show was Star Trek with William Shatner, especially when they went to the other planets, which reminded me of the Mojave Desert,” Doyle said. “It left a huge impact on me.”
He started working at night because of the brutal desert heat. “At night, it was like a sauna; its warm rocks were very welcoming.”
Doyle was born and raised in the Highlands of Scotland. Doyle’s career began in the mid-1990s, working out of a small commercial darkroom in North London, U.K., printing work for some of the world’s most renowned photographers, including Richard Avedon. After buying a large-format view camera, he began traveling throughout Europe and the United States, making landscape photographs. It was his travels throughout the U.S. that opened things up for him. He said Americans welcomed him with open arms, whereas Europeans were sometimes more suspicious.
“I found my themes while living my best life, photographing whatever I wanted, and I still have some of these photographs to this day,” he said. “It was almost too easy in the U.S. You hop in your car and can drive everywhere. If you need gas, there’s a station; if you’re hungry, there’s a diner. It’s a landscape photographer’s dream.”
He moved to California with his wife in 2004.
“My wife, a photographer, had an uncle, a retired NASA rocket scientist, whom we often visited in Encino, Calif.,” he said. “We loved it there, moved to L.A., and never looked back.”
They later moved to Palm Springs.
“It was during COVID,” Doyle said. “We sat around, went out to the Mojave Desert to take pictures—and that began our love of the desert.
“At night, filming alone with no one in sight, I felt like an alien, either arriving or leaving.”
Convergence, an exhibit of photography by Marcus Doyle, is on display through Thursday, June 4, at Rubine Red Gallery, at 668 N. Palm Canyon Drive, No. 102, in Palm Springs. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday. Learn more at www.rubineredgallery.com.
