On The Edge of Death

A Photographic dispatch
from death valley national Park

A portrait of Matt Jones & Jess Jelsma Masterton standing in front of a sculpture in Rhyolite Ghost Town, outside of Death Valley National Park.

The Studio

What we do

Wild Burro is a small art, design, and publishing studio. The project is the brainchild of Matt Jones and Jess Jelsma Masterton, two creatives who met while pursing our MFAs at the University of Alabama.

Together, we have experience in creative writing, journalism, photography, design, publishing, small-business management and marketing, and teaching. We are interested in pursuing work that is rich in research, with a particular focus on environmental and social impacts. We are drawn to the intersection between old and new technology and delight in experimenting with vintage equipment and stylings.

Why Wild Burro?

Wild burros were one of Matt’s first photographic subjects upon moving to Nevada. During a weekend stay in Tonopah, he took a trip to the Marietta Wild Burro Range. A resulting photographs was published in the Winter 2021 issue of Nevada Magazine, accompanying an article titled “An Ode to the Desert Jackass: Move Over Dog; Man Had a Different Best Friend in the 19th Century.”

If you’ve never met a wild burro, you might not know that they can be both fiercely intelligent and disarmingly sweet. Their resourcefulness has allowed them survive for millions of years in some of the earth’s least hospitable environments. They are a cooperative species, yet also stubborn when they need to be.

In short, we think there is much to learn from donkeys.