Stone and Light

The photo on this page is the most meaningful image I’ve taken that sums up what this blog is about. Consider the image of the Glen Canyon Dam.  A deep unforgiving gorge in sandstone. People have used creation and their ingenuity to create a marvel equally as spectacular, a dam capable of producing clean power for the next 2000 years and managing one of our most important resources, water.

If you have had or ever get the opportunity to spend time on the Colorado Plateau in the summer you learn very quickly that life in the desert equals water. When looking at the beauty of the desert it can be hard comprehend exactly how unforgiving the land is. In a matter of hours a person or animal without water can die, but at the same time a spring feeding a small canyon can create a lush oasis with an eternal life.

Visiting the Colorado Plateau is a reminder that we live on earth in a time period when the planet is interesting. Throughout the Colorado Plateau every dramatic landscape has a story to tell about erosion by wind, flood, ice and flowing water. Had we visited this area early in the planet’s history we would have observed flat land as the erosion would not have had sufficient time to sculpt the landscape. As erosion continues the land slowly becomes flat and featureless.... someday, it will be a smooth again. What does light do when it strikes a smooth sphere? Nothing, no texture, do depth, no shadows, no wild light.

In assembling this collection of images I choose to take a perspective that is often overlooked. Rather than sweep the entire existence of humans under the rug and present the Colorado Plateau in a purely natural way, as it would be if we had never been here, I have chose to present the region as a person would actually experience it. In the early days of shooting images for this book I showed the image of Capitol Reef National Park, Goose Necks Overlook Road to another professional photographer. His immediate response was that although the image was technically very nice in terms of color and clarity, the image was unusable because there was a road in the photo and commented that I should attempt to retake the photo minus the road. After debating the composition of the image for some time he agreed that the road was a dynamic component of the photo and actually added to the composition. Ultimately his comment was based on a difference of perspective, he felt that photography of the landscape should show the land as it would be without humans. I asked if he was taking a photo of a river and it had been dammed by a beaver would he find another spot to photograph the river without the presence of the beaver dam? The answer was most certainly not, a beaver dam in itself would be a worthy subject. Our perspectives differ in that I believe we are also inhabitants of this planet, and a dam built by humans can be equally as elegant a subject as a dam built by a beaver.

Occasionally I have described the Colorado Plateau as the closest you’ll ever get to traveling to another planet. From the towers of red rock to the impossibly blue skies to the deep slot canyons carved by time and water to the arches of stone, there are few places I know of that present as much drama as the Colorado Plateau. Each time I visit the desert I am always amazed by the vastness of this land; every canyon, mesa, river bed and mountain have a new secret to share. A person could explore the Colorado Plateau for a lifetime and only see a fraction.

It is my hope that the viewer of this book may grasp the experience of visiting this incredible desert from hiking in the Virgin River to standing on the North rim of the Grand Canyon, to sitting on the beach by the camp fire at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. I hope you enjoy the Colorado Plateau and enjoy viewing these images as much as I have enjoyed taking them.

Loren French