Almost Heaven is the culmination of 5 years of traveling to Death Valley, CA to photograph the towns surrounding the National Park, the people who live there and allegorical vignettes about what it is like to live there. Despite being one of the most severe climates in the world and being infamous for taking the lives of unfortunate travelers, people continue to visit Death Valley; and some choose to stay. Whatever their reasons may be for being there, every person I’ve met describes it the same way, “like paradise”.

This project is a meditation on mortality, legacy and hope, that starts in the decaying boom town of Trona, CA before resolving in a blossoming collection of communes in the middle of nowhere. The ethos of these places stand in stark contrast to one another, yet the people there have both arrived at the same conclusion; that it’s more peaceful to live in the desert than it is to live in the city.