Visiting the Famous Prada Marfa

Texas

Visiting the Famous Prada Marfa

Visiting the famous Prada Marfa art installation has been on my bucket list for years. To be honest, I thought I would never be able to see it in person. Prada Marfa is pretty much located in the middle of nowhere so you would have to dedicate a ridiculous amount of time and energy to get to it. Luckily, since we were already planning a road trip through the southwest to visit places like Horseshoe Bend and Austin, we made sure to make a pit stop at Prada Marfa on our way back home.

Life Updates

I want to apologize that I haven’t posted in a while! Memorial Day weekend I was in San Diego and then I went to Big Sur right after for the rest of the week. It was my first time in Big Sur and there was absolutely no reception. Don’t worry though, I’m not going anywhere. I’m playing catch-up big time this weekend so hopefully, I can pound out a lot of blog posts for all of you ladies and gents. I got a lot of hotel and fashion posts coming so I’m really excited about that. Stay tuned!

Prada Marfa Location

Getting here will be no easy feat. Prada Marfa is located in the middle of the desert close to the town of Valentine on the western side of Texas. The closest airport to Prada Marfa is El Paso Airport (ELP) and even then, it’ll still be a 2.5-hour drive to get to the famous landmark. Since we were driving back from Austin to Los Angeles, we planned it out so we could make a detour here. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have made a special trip just for this.

History of Prada Marfa

I’m not going to go in-depth here since there are way better articles out there that explain the history of the art installation. But for our purposes, Prada Marfa was erected back in 2005 by Scandinavian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset and was designed by California-based architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello. The art installation was designed to look like a real Prada boutique with real Prada items. Right after its inauguration, it was quickly vandalized and items were stolen out of it. Since then, the site has been taken care of by nearby organizations to keep it looking clean and beautiful for visitors to stop and enjoy.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/03/prada-marfa-texas-sculpture-boutique

Tips for Visiting Prada Marfa

Timing: We didn’t really have an option when we were going to visit Prada Marfa. We were coming from Austin so it was going to take 7.5 hours to get there. We were hoping to get there before sunset but made it just a little bit after. It was such a clear and beautiful night and we got a lot of great pictures so I would highly recommend (if you can) getting there around sunset.
Crowds: When we went, there were maybe only two other groups there. Everyone was really respectful and let each other take turns taking pictures. Well, that ended quickly because another group came about 20 minutes later and they were in a rush to get their pictures since the sun was setting. They were so rude and kept telling us to get out of THEIR picture. The point of this story is to make sure you get here early enough if you want enough time for your pictures.
Parking: We just parked on the side of the road across Prada Marfa.
Taking Pictures: There’s not a lot of traffic so you can easily set up your tripod on the road if you need to. If you are facing the store, the sun sets to the back right of the building so you want to keep that in mind. I mostly used my Sony A6600 and 35 mm prime lens so I could get that beautiful depth of field. It’s also really good for low-light situations so it helped once the sun disappeared.
Bring a Lock: There’s a chain-link fence behind the building with a bunch of locks on it. If you like doing those kinds of things, make sure you bring a lock so you can add on to it.