Amazing Grace beside Salvation Mountain.

“God is love”

The message is simple and sacred.

The first time I stepped out of the car onto the ground in front of Salvation Mountain I felt it in the wind. This place was sacred. I knew the story of Leonard, but it suddenly hit me that he had given 30 years of his life to build this monument in the middle of an unforgiving desert landscape, with no power or running water. I immediately changed my mind about what I was going to capture here. We had brought along some brands to shoot, but it became crystal clear that this wasn’t the place. I needed to capture the mountain itself. Tell it’s story.

So when the opportunity came to visit the mountain again 3 years later I started to dream up an idea of capturing a very raw, very vulnerable performance by my talented travel companions. When I asked Lucy if they could do her arrangement of Amazing Grace she got very excited, she had already been hoping to re-release the song for Easter. We had to work out if it was even possible to record there, especially with the wind. It was winter which meant the sunset was a lot shorter, we only had one shot at getting it right. After shooting and watching the sun fade completely, we left in the pitch dark hoping that we captured something good (or at least usable!) I think we all teared up when we heard how beautifully the recording came through!

Because of the harshness of the desert the mountain may not exist forever, but it will live documented in the art that has captured it. I hope that we have contributed to and honoured the message of the mountain and the man that devoted his life to bring it to us in the most beautiful way.