Southwest of Midland, Texas, the Permian oil basin has a sugar coating of green. This is well irrigated agricultural land and whilst there may be an abundance of oil below the surface, it is the rich green from the cotton fields that is visible.

When location scouting, I was immediately drawn to this feature and the horizontal skyline accompanying it. The symmetry is only broken by the signs that this is one of the world’s great oil reserves - the Permian contributes over 5% of daily world oil production. Straight dusty roads run through the green fields to the numerous pump jacks that extend to the horizon. It is a Hydrocarbon “War of the Worlds”.

I was reminded of Andreas Gursky’s famous photograph “Rhine” which played to parallel lines, symmetry and spatial distancing and some creative ideas began to marinate in my mind. I also then remembered the PR imagery for the Oscar winning film - Green Book - and I saw how a car story could be told against this most giving of backdrops.

We had access to an outstanding car prop in a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville. This long, iconic American car needs to be photographed in profile to celebrate its length. I sensed that if I filmed with the late afternoon light, the white car would ping against the green and if I was somewhat elevated, the distance compression would work well. There were many factors at play that evening in the cotton fields and I think we played most of them as well as we could.

The result is pure Americana and one of my stronger works over the last few years. It pays homage to a special part of the world and America’s greatest natural asset. Taylor Sheriden’s Landman has made West Texas sexy and I hope the story here endorses that.

We would like to thank Cody Campbell and his alumni friends from Texas Tech for their help in the Permian basin. They are good landmen.