Southern California, End of the Line – The New Yorker

Gregory Halpern’s new photo book, “Zzyzx,” operates like a road map, or a set of road maps, leading viewers to the end of the line. The photographer’s subject is Southern California, although he is not interested in the usual myths. His eye instead turns toward the elements: fire, desert, pavement, scrub. If the volume contains a single emblematic image, it may be the first one—a hand, tattooed with seven stars across the palm, raised not in supplication but to block out the relentless glare of the sun.