GEOLOGISCHES WUNDERLAND

“Geologic wonderland.” That's how German photographer Holger Lorenz describes the American Southwest, a place he first visited in 1990. Since then, he's made 23 more trips. He doesn't just drop in, though. In the past two decades, he's spent 520 days trekking through the backcountry in search of remote sites and untouched Mother Nature. Initially, he tried to emulate his role models — Ansel Adams and our own Jack Dykinga — but like those great photographers, he's developed his own style, and it definitely measures up.

GOOD STRIATIONS

PRECEDING PANEL: Odd formations made from stratified, wind-scoured Navajo sandstone are scattered around the Coyote Buttes area of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

INNER GLOW

LEFT: Discovered in 1931 by a 12-year-old Navajo girl who'd lost her sheep, Antelope Canyon is popular among photographers for the dramatic shafts of sunlight that pierce its inner chamber.

CALL OF THE WILD

SHELF LIFE