Randall Derrick lives in Amarillo, Texas, a city that sits along the arid, northern edge of the Llano Estacado in the Texas panhandle. The Great Llano is one of the largest, almost completely flat regions of North America. It is mostly dry and featureless.

    Normally, a visual experience on the Llano Estacado is not very stimulating. With vast tracts of grassland or endless rows of barbed wire fences that separate cultivated fields of wheat and maize, memories of the western Texas panhandle do not rival the spectacular scenery of the Tetons or southern Alaska. Here, sunsets and thunderstorms are the most talked about feature of the geography; they are spectacular but ephemeral, lasting only a few moments. Nature’s commentary is mostly silent, but in reality, this visual destitution is only an illusion.

    Visual discoveries often happen by random chance, an opportunity that favors readiness. Other times it is by sheer calculation and great effort, relying on a rare, extraordinary condition. Randall Derrick's intention is to communicate the ecstasy of a moment and record a permanent emotional state but, outside of pure chance which requires readiness, the difficulty is predicting the small window of opportunity where all the physical elements of a vision come together, capturing a moment that's ephemeral and might never be seen again. And once captured, that vision or opportunity and its accompanying transcendent emotion can be placed back into minds and memories at will and at one's convenience.


Randall Derrick is a native of the Texas panhandle. He is also the publisher of the panhandle geographic website, PanhandleNation.com.

Formally educated in history at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, Randall is happiest when he can pursue featureless lands where visual destitution is only an illusion.