Selected photographs from the portfolio


For me, the west is about the contrast of years and eras. Years are human scale, eras geologic. In most of America, we think only of years -- human stories, design, history. The evidence of eras is hidden. In much of the West, however, it is revealed, dwarfing the scale of our achievements and our lifespans.

Some of the West is alpine or marine, softened by evergreens, oaks and alders, or the mists of inland seas and marshes, but even these landscapes contain reminders of cataclysms and altered sea levels. Every decade has its earthquakes, eruptions, landslides and floods to remind us of our evanescence among the eras, even of the imminence of catastrophe.

After the passage of the smallest part of an era, what mark of us will remain?

After sixty years in the west, I love this alarming beauty. I know we live in a dream.

The photographer's shadow