Dead Palms

Schutmaat describes working in the vast expanses of the desert Southwest as a profound experience: “Some might remark that the land is harsh or hostile, but I just see a setting that’s indifferent to all human concerns.”

The raggedy remains of dead palm trees, “planted by someone with hubris, thinking that there was enough water to maintain them,” as Schutmaat remarks, prompted him to take this picture. The background also struck him as important: “[The trees] will come and go quickly, but that ridgeline beyond it will not . . . the efforts of humankind, when measured against that, gets put into perspective.”