Small Against the Canyon

A canyon at the end of the afternoon, two walls of sandstone and one body between them. The commission asked for scale; the answer turned out to be the walking figure, which is the only thing in the frame you can measure.

One angle, many frames

Shot from the far end of the gorge with a 50 mm, so the walls fill the frame and the sky never enters. The rock warms as the sun drops, and the figure gets smaller with every step.

The final edit is nine frames, the same walls, a different distance in each. It reads like a walk.

The magazine used the last frame, where the figure is barely a mark. I would have used the first. We were both right, which is the usual outcome of an argument with a good art director.