Complementary Photos for Quine's "Desert Landscapes"

Wyman’s overpopulated universe is in many ways unlovely. It offends the aesthetic sense of us who have a taste for desert landscapes, but this is not the worst of it. Wyman’s slum of possibles is a breeding ground for disorderly elements. Take, for instance, the possible fat man in that doorway; and, again, the possible bald man in that doorway. Are they the same possible man, or two possible men? How do we decide? How many possible men are there in that doorway? Are there more possible thin ones than fat ones? How many of them are alike? Or would their being alike make them one? Are no two possible things alike? Is this the same as saying that it is impossible for two things to be alike? Or, finally, is the concept of identity simply inapplicable to unactualized possibles? But what sense can be found in talking of entities which cannot meaningfully be said to be identical with themselves and distinct from one another? These elements are well-nigh incorrigible. By a Fregean therapy of individual concepts, some effort might be made at rehabilitation; but I feel we’d do better simply to clear Wyman’s slum and be done with it.

Source: Willard Van Orman Quine, "On What There Is," Review of Metaphysics 2 (1948/1949): 23-24 [total: 21-38], accessed October 17, 2013, http://sfcmadrid.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/quine-on-what-there-is.pdf

I came across this photo project that very well complements Quine's taste for "desert landscapes." It's called, "Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere"; you can find it here:

http://www.chrissisarich.com/projects/

A nice little article on it is here:

http://www.featureshoot.com/2013/10/chris-sisarichs-desolate-desert-landscapes-2/