The Salton Sea, near Palm Springs, California, is a gigantic man-made lake and home to many once-thriving small resort towns. The resorts are now abandoned, the lake level has dropped, and its salinity has risen dramatically. A few art colonies now populate the apocryphal landscape.

The town of Bombay Beach now attracts photographers and tourists to view the bizarre barren mix of desolate beaches, remnants of kitschy 1960s homes, and isolated art installations.

This photo was taken in late afternoon as the sun was setting on the now-landlocked marina. The sun angle brought out detail in the salt-encrusted beach cast a long shadow from the old harbor wall. The wide-angle lens enhances the sense of desolation. The person in the distance staring out to "sea" from the old breakwater completed the surrealistic scene for me.