Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Author's Comments

There is a problem with photographing Monument Valley, and the problem is that you have already seen it. Every Western ever made, every car commercial, every desktop wallpaper. The mittens are so deeply embedded in the visual language of the American West that arriving in person feels less like discovery than recognition. I had to get past that before I could make a photograph that felt like mine. What helped was waiting. The view from the visitor center is the famous one and it is famous for a reason, but the loop drive is where the buttes start to behave differently. They rotate as you move. Merrick separates from the West Mitten and becomes its own thing. The light works hardest in the last forty minutes before sunset in late October or early November, when the angle is low enough to throw real shadow off the eastern faces and the red of the sandstone goes almost violent against a cooling sky. Winter is even better if you can handle the cold and the chance of closure. The low sun stays low all day, and a dusting of snow on the desert floor does something to the color that I have not seen anywhere else. Bring a long lens as well as a wide one. The compression shot, with the buttes stacked against each other from a distance, is the photograph most people do not make and it is often the strongest one available. Long exposure at blue hour, with the silhouettes going pure black against a still-glowing sky, is the other. Hire a Navajo guide if you can. The backcountry access changes what is possible entirely.

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