Photographer Brings the High Desert to Life in New Exhibit

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

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

The Irene Carlson Gallery of Photography is now featuring Kinetic Ambiguity, a solo exhibition by High Desert photographer Edward Lance Montgomery. The work finds its roots in Montgomery’s service in the U.S. Army during the Second Gulf War. “I couldn’t stop in the middle of the desert to take a picture,” he recalls 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 became the foundation for the fluid, abstract style Montgomery now calls Kinetic Ambiguity. Using intentional camera movement and long exposures, he transforms Joshua trees, power lines and mountains along 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 personal 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 reconsider the possibilities of landscape photography. In Montgomery’s words, it’s not about technical perfection but 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.”