Colorado has been home most of my life. Though not born here, since first stepping foot in Colorado as a teenager I knew it would be home. Many years later the fascination with this great state – the Centennial State – has only increased. Exploring Colorado has become a life long endeavor.
This is Not a Geography Lesson
Over the years I have developed a particular fascination with Geography. I suppose it has always been there – I’ve just not quite thought to consolidate the various areas of interest beneath the topic of Geography. But I promise this isn’t a geography lesson or class.
Geography has 5 major themes:
- Location, defined as a particular place or position
- Place, referring to the physical and human impacts of a location
- Movement; the translocation of humans, goods and ideas between places
- Human-Environment Interaction; the dependency, adaptation and modifications we make on locations
- Region; defined by a set of uniform physical or human characteristics
Physiography
As a photographer living in a beautiful state, over the past many years of traveling the state I’ve accumulated many photographs of various parts of Colorado. Recently, in an attempt to begin categorizing not only those, but numerous other photographs made of the western United States, I’ve begun exploring Physiography. Physiography is essentially a means of classifying geomorphological features into various categories and sub categories. You can read more about it here. The framework for Physiography extends outside the western United States, but the western U.S. is the area I’m focused on – photographically and geographically.
This section of Blue Hour Journal – and the recipient of my attention for the foreseeable future – focuses on three categories above: Location, Place and Region. The intent is to concentrate on the land, and what distinguishes one place from another. But this won’t become a geography class. More a repository of visual knowledge.
My love of the Intermountain West extends beyond Colorado too; to the Pacific Northwest, the American Southwest, the Northern Rockies, North Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, Utah’s high plateaus and deep canyons, and many others. But because Colorado is home, it’s unique and therefore warrants its own category. This section of Blue Hour Journal is dedicated to my home state, Colorado. Over time I’ll organize and present the photographs in a sensible manner – as much for the curious seeker as for myself.
Meanwhile, thanks for taking a peek at the beginnings of the next generation of Blue Hour Journal.