My romance with the American West began as a child of the mid-Atlantic nurtured by horseback riding, movies, and my Father’s dreams. However, when I began to spend adolescent summers in Wyoming my world changed forever. I fell under the spell of the sublime; only later did I understand the costs of preservation. The real and ideal landscape of Yellowstone National Park, an iconic American landscape, is the subject of More Than Scenery: Yellowstone, an American Love Story. Each generation invests the park with values reflecting their own historical moment. I survey these relationships photographically from the vantage points of nature, culture, and history in a work in three parts.

I began this project in 2008, looking toward the Haynes postcard that stirred my interest for guidance (see slide 1), with a series of images of park visitors titled Views from Wonderland. As the project progressed, I understood objects of cultural memory as significant and began Collecting Yellowstone. Finally I realized I could not ignore the land and its care, and began Stories from the Ecosystem. This trilogy triangulates the intellectual ecosystem of More Than Scenery.