A few months ago I saw an article posted about a tiny desert town in Inyo County, called Keeler. Twenty minutes later, I had picked up my friend Justin, his guitar, and was gassing up the car for a 3 hour trip up “The 395” (one of my favorite California highways). We did this trip knowing we’d only have about 20 minutes of last light to explore … but I do random things like that, so this was nothing new. 

Justin’s a musician so he brought his guitar and serenaded me with his hybrid punk-country sounds as I photographed for an album cover that doesn’t actually exist. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Sitting at around 3000 ft elevation, this 1.3 square mile town has a population around 66 human souls; not exactly a bustling metropolis. The entire time we were there, we didn’t see a single person. We did, however, hear a dog barking and child laughing off in the distance. This would be fine, except that it kept happening over and over as if it were on some sort of pre-recorded track. Creepy? Yah! A bit. 

Anyway, here are a few “portraits” of this town that feels like it’s straight out of a Tom Waits song.