Photo Gallery
Artist Statement
Cactus, Souls of the Desert
Forty-nine years ago, Reed Rahn arrived in Arizona for Christmas break in his first year as a student at the Brooks Institute of Photography. His parents had just relocated from Chicago to Tucson, and as he drove through the barren stretch of desert between Las Vegas and Tucson with his brother Jeff, he couldn’t help but think: this is the driest, ugliest place on Earth.
When he told his mother she had made a mistake, she calmly replied, “Go for a hike with your father up Sabino Canyon and then tell me I made a mistake.” One hour later, he was surrounded by towering two hundred year old saguaro cacti, with an alpine-fed stream, and snow capped peaks rising to 9,400 feet, he realized she was right. Again.
That hike changed everything.
The Sonoran Desert is anything but lifeless. It is sacred, alive, and steeped in history. The Indigenous Pima people call the Santa Catalina Mountains “mountains with old souls.” The saguaro cactus in Arizona’s living icons can grow over 50 feet tall, live for centuries, and bear vibrant fruit each spring, which the Pima still harvest during ceremonial celebrations.
This reverence for the land became his passion. Now, after nearly five decades of photographing the American Southwest, he presents Cactus, Souls of the Desert a fine art photography series honoring the timeless spirit of the Sonoran cactus.
This collection features 20 carefully curated images, each one a portrait of texture, form, color, and endurance. These are not snapshots, they are meditations. With the eye of a seasoned photographer / artist and the heart of a witness, he has photographed these beings under the beautiful light that makes Arizona famous.
For nearly forty years, he has appeared around the world from the cover of Time Magazine to the pages of National Geographic. But Cactus, Souls of the Desert is personal. It is a return to stillness, spirit, and story.
Each image is offered as a limited edition fine art print, 8.5” x 11”, in editions of only ten. Previously available only to private collectors, these works are now released to the public rarities from a photographer whose best work has long lived behind the scenes.
To those who collect this series: thank you for seeing the beauty that endures in silence. These are not just cactus photographs, they are portraits of time, rooted in reverence. Reed looks forward to signing your personal limited edition print, Thank You.