The natural world around us, especially the realm of true Wilderness, has the beauty and power
to astound and move all of us. In an increasingly mechanized and alienating artificial environment
in which we spend so much of our time, any glimpse of the natural world acts as a soothing breath of
fresh air. My aim as a photographer is to impart a sense that there is a world of true Wilderness
that is out there, waiting to be experienced.
Unfortunately the natural world is under siege. It’s no longer responsible to escape the
pressures of our urban existence for a period and then turn our backs on a landscape that is threatened.
I feel strongly that wherever you experience Wilderness you need to help protect it just as it has helped
renew you. Whether you choose to help by joining a local organization, or a national one such as the
Sierra Club or Wilderness Society, or even if it’s gathering your friends to help pick up trash in
your favorite hiking locale, you MUST do something to help these endangered places.
I have been professionally photographing Wilderness since 1978. Though I have photographed many Wilderness
landscapes throughout North America, the emphasis of my work has been the canyons of Southern Utah. By focusing
for so long and hard on one region, I have been able to get into some truly remote areas. Some of my photographs
are of areas that no one on foot has seen for over 600 years. Being in a truly wild landscape is at the core of
what I’m trying to impart. At the same time I delight in challenging the viewer’s perspective on
size, color, and perspective itself.
All of these images were taken onto film (how quaint) in natural light without the use of colored filters.
My prints are all archival, custom-printed ilfachrome prints (commonly referred to as cibachromes). These
prints have a depth and beauty that, to my eye, cannot be duplicated by inkjet printing and are not done
justice by your computer’s monitor. Sadly in this digital age the ilfachrome process is becoming as
endangered as some of my beloved canyons.
My work has been published in a variety of books and journals including:
Wilderness at the Edge, by the Utah Wilderness Coalition
Canyon Country Bridges, by Fran Barnes
Utah’s Unprotected Wilderness, Gibbs Smith publisher
Canyoneering 2, by Steve Allen, University of Utah Press
High Country News
I hope you’ve enjoyed my work and are inspired to visit some Wilderness and help protect it.
— Harvey Halpern
Contact me about prints at
Some of my favorite organizations
fighting for these lands are:
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Red Rock Forests
www.harveyhalpern.com
website by s. folias
Use of images for personal, non–commercial use is hereby granted provided credit is given.
If you do use these images under this permission statement please email me and
let me know what you have used it for.
All the text and images on this site are Copyright © 2007 Harvey Halpern. All Rights Reserved.
Use of any of the text or images on this site without the written permission of the copyright holder
is a violation of International Copyright law.