Photographer Brings the High Desert to Life in New Exhibit

Edward Lance Montgomery along with his work within the Kinetic Ambiguity exhibit at Miller Hall. (ULV Photo / Brandon Le)

Inspired by his Army service, the photographer transforms highways and Joshua bushes into dreamlike abstractions in Kinetic Ambiguity at the Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography

The Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography is now that includes Kinetic Ambiguity, a solo exhibition by High Desert photographer Edward Lance Montgomery. The work finds its roots in Montgomery’s service within the U.S. Army throughout the Second Gulf War. “I couldn’t stop in the middle of the desert to take a picture,” he recollects of his 2003 deployment. “So I would just take pictures as I was driving, one-handed… and midway through that tour, I just stared at them and thought, ‘Let me reevaluate this.’ This might be something.”

That realization grew to become the muse for the fluid, summary fashion Montgomery now calls Kinetic Ambiguity. Using intentional digicam motion and lengthy exposures, he transforms Joshua bushes, energy traces and mountains alongside highways from the Antelope Valley to the Victor Valley into sweeping, dreamlike compositions. “I want people to have the same takeaway I do,” he explains. “It makes them feel good… almost something in science fiction, this otherworldly feeling when you look at these images.”

Montgomery, a Victorville resident and Cal State San Bernardino graduate, describes the exhibit as a private milestone. “It’s a big deal… the fact that it’s a solo show makes it that much more special,” he says. 

Kinetic Ambiguity asks viewers to rethink the probabilities of panorama pictures. In Montgomery’s phrases, it’s not about technical perfection however emotional resonance: “I’m not shooting for magazine covers or commercial work… I just want to create something that motivates me to do more, that feels beautiful, that makes people feel good.”

The exhibit on the Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography in Miller Hall is open now till April 17.