Meyerowitz's 'Grand Canyon' - a successful fine art landscape photograph

While looking at Joel Meyerowitz's work I was very drawn to his photograph, Grand Canyon (1973).  I greatly enjoy looking at landscape photographs as they take me to places that I may never see; especially the way that the final shot has been produced.  Some landscapes are more documentarian in style, and others are reflections of the photographer's response to the space.

I find landscape photography one that I have not been able to succeed in.  The camera fails to capture all the intricate beauty that I see and feel.  The delicate colours and detail I saw end up harsh and bland.  I want my landscapes to share with the viewer how I felt; it is heartbreaking that I cannot achieve this.

To me landscape photography has to be extraordinary; if it needs up being just another snap of some landscape it has lost at being fine art.  There needs to be something that transcends beyond.  Multiple elements need to be at work, something that draws the viewer in.  Colour, composition, line, texture, boldness, subtlety, light and shadow are all elements that can make a landscape photo something special; Grand Canyon has all these at work in the one shot.  Still there needs to be more, something that may not be easily defined that makes it from ordinary to extraordinary.  Perhaps it a state of drama or tranquillity that make it.  Or perhaps it is the injection of emotion into a subject that one could think of as void of it, which makes the landscape photograph extraordinary.  Either way it needs to take the viewer on a journey of some kind, draw them in, create intrigue, or stir something deep within.

Through Meyerowitz's photograph I am transported to a place that does not exist in this world but only in the world of photography; an other world.  The colours are rich and contrasting, and yet there is also subtlety.  The contrasting colours and textures have created layers, as if looking at a diorama. The angle creates drama while soft changes in tone in the canyon peaks and sky create a sense of peace. The light and shadow captured adds depth, texture and even more layers to the photo. 

A sense of longing washes over me when I view this shot. I feel the warmth of the sun's rays, the air on my skin and the danger of the height.  An almost overwhelming feeling of emotion takes me over .  I am small against its grandness, and yet feel large.  There is so much beauty that it fills my spirit and overflows into my body.  I am connected to something greater than myself, it is invigorating and powerful. Nature does not try to be, it simply is.  The beauty of nature and the nature of beauty.