 Grand Canyon Tourist with Flying Bird Jacket, 2007 Grand Canyon and its Tourists series |  Grand Canyon Tourist with White Hat, 2007 Grand Canyon and its Tourists series |  Grand Canyon Tourists Photographing Themselves, 2007 Grand Canyon and its Tourists series |
 Grand Canyon Tourist with Fuzzy White Hat, 2007 Grand Canyon and its Tourists series |  Grand Canyon Tourists Lunching, 2007 Grand Canyon and its Tourists series |  German Tourists at the Maswik Lodge Cafeteria, 2007 Grand Canyon and its Tourists series |
I love the Grand Canyon because the tourists are from around the globe and everyone is standing there agog with awe over this huge chasm in the earth. They're not without self-consciousness. It's windy. Their bodies are on guard against the elements. But the sense of awe at nature lessens that self-consciousness just enough. At least, for me, a kind of magic takes place in the company of all these people transfixed and amazed by what they had likely not expected to be as grand as it is. Because no photograph ever prepares you for being in the presence of the canyon. Some can hint at it, and I have photographs in which I've tried to capture that hint, but the physical environment and all its nuances must ever fail to be transmitted.
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