COLLECTIONS
THE GRAND WEST
Abandoned places. Fading America. Before it's gone.
THE GRAND WEST
Dead Horse
Dead Horse Point sits 2,000 feet above the Colorado River on the edge of canyon country that goes on longer than your eye can follow. The river carved this over millions of years and it's still not finished. Standing at the rim, you understand for the first time how small everything you've ever worried about actually is.
THE GRAND WEST
Desert Noir
Sedona after dark is a different place entirely — the red rock formations lit by starlight, the dead juniper in the foreground holding its ground against centuries of wind and drought. I was alone out here at midnight with the Milky Way overhead and the silence so complete it had a sound of its own.
THE GRAND WEST
La Sal
The Courthouse Towers in Arches National Park have been standing since before humans had language to describe them. I arrived at first light when the sandstone was warming from red to gold and the blue sky was still clean and cold. Some places make photography feel like the only appropriate response.
THE GRAND WEST
Last Chance
Mt. Rainier rises 14,000 feet out of the surrounding landscape — so massive it creates its own weather. On a clear summer morning the wildflower meadows at its base are in full color and the mountain fills the entire sky. I called it Last Chance because by afternoon the clouds had moved in and it was gone.
THE GRAND WEST
Take Shelter
The old Mormon Row barn in Grand Teton National Park has been photographed ten thousand times — the challenge is always finding the light that makes it new. A clearing storm at sunset with the entire Teton range lit orange behind it did it. I've rarely felt luckier behind a camera than I did in this moment.
THE GRAND WEST
The Bend
Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona is one of the most dramatic geological formations on the continent — the Colorado River wrapping 270 degrees around a sandstone peninsula in a single fluid motion. I've stood at this rim a dozen times and it still doesn't feel possible. The river has been making this curve for six million years.
THE GRAND WEST
Tokatee Falls
Tokatee Falls drops 120 feet through a basalt canyon in the Oregon Cascades, the water so cold and clear it turns blue in the mist. The columnar basalt walls frame it like a cathedral. I hiked in at dawn to avoid the crowds and had it entirely to myself — which is the only way a place like this should be experienced.
THE GRAND WEST
Valley Of Fire
Nevada's Valley of Fire at sunset looks like the landscape is actually burning from within — the Aztec sandstone turning deep red and orange as the light drops. This is the desert at its most dramatic and least apologetic. An hour's drive from Las Vegas and another world entirely.
THE GRAND WEST
Clements Glow
Clements Mountain in Glacier National Park catches the first light of morning on its upper face while the wildflower meadow below is still in shadow — a brief window that lasts minutes and rewards the early alarm. This is Montana doing what Montana does best. I've never seen another mountain quite this color at quite this hour.