Western Sequence

1996

These photographs were made when I accompanied a colleague and his students on his road-borne class, The Great West, through seven states in three weeks. Most of our time, as with earlier outsiders, was spent on the road or camping, but now with greater speed, comfort and safety. We knew each day where we would stop and what we would eat. No need to race with winter nor hunt and forage; canyons and bears could be savored, taken in with mind and lens. These elements and others served as confirmations of a West imagined and wild, one whose wind, rocks and water still held the power to erase the evidence of our coming.

One thing sure, though, is that the photographs don’t show what was really there. That which is saved and that which is demolished is in accord with our desires as we report them through stories and pictures. The sky is least changed of all.