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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
This photograph was made at Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site in Arizona, a place where people returned for generations to carve stories into stone. The markings vary in tone—some darker, some lighter—evidence that they were not made all at once, but layered over time.
The image was created as an 8×10 handmade dry plate, exposed in a large-format camera on location using dry plate collodion process. Unlike digital files, this plate is a physical original—light, chemistry, and time fixed onto glass. No screen. No power. No duplication.
Because the petroglyphs exist on multiple rock surfaces at different angles, the composition prioritizes a central panel while allowing surrounding forms to fall naturally into depth. The stone at the top of the frame acts as an anchor, holding the image together as the eye moves through the carvings.
This print is the result of a single committed exposure, made slowly and deliberately in the field.
Nothing is forever. But some things get close.
Part of the NomadType Southwest series, When the Cloud Fails — Painted Rocks is about the rock: a surface that holds memory without needing to be maintained or powered.
Please visit my YouTube Channel to find out more about the making of this image in the episode:
This photograph was made at Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site in Arizona, a place where people returned for generations to carve stories into stone. The markings vary in tone—some darker, some lighter—evidence that they were not made all at once, but layered over time.
The image was created as an 8×10 handmade dry plate, exposed in a large-format camera on location using dry plate collodion process. Unlike digital files, this plate is a physical original—light, chemistry, and time fixed onto glass. No screen. No power. No duplication.
Because the petroglyphs exist on multiple rock surfaces at different angles, the composition prioritizes a central panel while allowing surrounding forms to fall naturally into depth. The stone at the top of the frame acts as an anchor, holding the image together as the eye moves through the carvings.
This print is the result of a single committed exposure, made slowly and deliberately in the field.
Nothing is forever. But some things get close.
Part of the NomadType Southwest series, When the Cloud Fails — Painted Rocks is about the rock: a surface that holds memory without needing to be maintained or powered.
Please visit my YouTube Channel to find out more about the making of this image in the episode:
