A few years ago three of us explored a long section of narrow canyon in Utah, looking for photographs in this rich landscape. We started in a broad valley where a stream flowed between low hills, but soon the walls rose and steepened and the valley narrowed, and we found ourselves following a creek. The canyon was alternately wide and then narrow and constricted.
Continue reading Autumn Trees, Canyon Wall
This imaginary landscape — an image produced by manipulating photographic materials — riffs on the subject of playa mud. Here the semi-circular forms in the lower 2/3 of the frame interested me, obviously along with the shapes and textures of the dried mud.
Continue reading Imaginary Landscape — Brown
This is probably the classic notion of what a desert looks like — fields of wind-formed sand dunes stretching into the distance. In truth, such dunes typically cover only a very small fraction of the desert landscape. That’s certainly true in Death Valley National Park, where large, impressive dunes are only found in a handful of locations. We visited one of them on the final morning of our late February trip.
Continue reading Aeolian Bedforms
What are we seeing here? I don’t want to say too much, since I’d rather than you mostly respond to what it appears to be. The image is derived from a desert “intimate landscape” — a photograph encompassing a very small portion of the landscape. Perhaps you can see the brighter areas on the right as being related to stars or galaxies, and the jagged lines might suggest electricity. It is up to you!
Continue reading Imaginary Landscape — A Boundary