Ghost Towns & Quiver Trees

Karas Region, Namibia – Images by Art Wolfe

Ever since I first saw Freeman Patterson’s work (http://www.freemanpatterson.com/) in the mid 1990s, I have wanted to go shoot in Kolmanskop. It was well worth the drive to this out-of-the-way corner of the Namibian desert. Diamonds were discovered here in 1908 and the town soon became very rich, but the diamonds were soon exhausted, and Kolmanskop was deserted by the mid 1950s. Now, as the paint continues to peel and the sands shift, it is a tremendous place to work the light and shadows.

We then headed due east to photograph one of the few extant kokerboom “forests.” These aloe trees grow sparsely among the rugged boulder landscape. We stayed there well into the night to get long exposures of the Milky Way.

Can’t see the slideshow? Click HERE