Morning Streak — A Self-Portrait at Joshua Tree That Became a Marketing Moment

Morning Streak — The Self-Portrait That Became a Marketing Image

. Some Images Are Made for No One in Particular

Not every photograph begins with a brief. This one began with a morning, a desert, and a decision that is difficult to fully explain after the fact except to say that it seemed like exactly the right thing to do at the time.

Joshua Tree National Park at dawn has the quality of a stage set — the improbable boulders, the silhouetted Joshua trees, the vast sky moving from deep violet to amber in the space of twenty minutes. It is one of the most photographed landscapes in California, but its strangeness never entirely becomes familiar. Something about the scale and the silence makes people do things they wouldn't do anywhere else.

. The Shot — A Jump, Some Morning Light, and No Clothes

Marc Olivier Le Blanc's self-portrait at Joshua Tree is exactly what it sounds like: a single frame of the photographer himself, airborne, unclothed, against the early desert sky. The image is playful, technically precise, and entirely unserious in the best possible way — a reminder that the people who make photographs for a living are also, occasionally, willing to be ridiculous in service of a good picture.

The photograph was made in the morning light that photographers travel to Joshua Tree specifically to find: soft, directional, and warm, with a quality that makes even simple subjects feel significant. The jump required several attempts to get the timing right. The absence of clothing was, in retrospect, non-negotiable — a clothed version of the same image would simply be a man jumping in a field.

. How a Joke Became a Portfolio Piece

The unexpected part of this story is what happened afterward. Marc used the image as a self-portrait and marketing image on his website for a period — and clients responded to it enthusiastically. In an industry where photographers tend to present themselves in the most professionally conventional terms possible, an image that is genuinely funny and technically excellent turns out to be an effective way to communicate something true about a creative sensibility.

The image says: this photographer takes his work seriously but not himself. It says: he is willing to commit to an idea even when that idea is absurd. It says he understands that the best photographs often come from the willingness to look a little foolish in pursuit of something real.

Those are not bad qualities in a commercial photographer.

Marc Olivier Le Blanc is a San Francisco commercial and editorial photographer with a practice that ranges from international magazine assignments to personal fine art work. Get in touch if you'd like to work together.