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Petroglyphs and Pictographs

A thousand years before photographers claimed the American Southwest as their own other artists made their mark on this landscape. From pre-history, though the Anasazi, to today's Navajo,Hopi and other native Americans, creating images in this environment has been an ongoing theme.

I'm fascinated by Rock Art as it's commonly called. I had first seen an example in Canyonlands National Park on a shoot there in January, 2000 at Newspaper Rock. That is an example of a petroglyph, where the image has been cut or scratched into the rock. Much rarer arepictographs, as seen here, where the images have actually been painted on using mineral dyes.

All photographs on this page were taken with the Canon EOS D30 and Canon 28~70mm f/2.8L lens at ISO 100 in RAW mode.

Pictographs are for this reason much rarer, as sunlight and weathering has destroyed all except those that are in well sheltered locations. (And you think you have problems with your inkjet...

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Alain Briot
Alain Briot
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Alain Briot creates fine art photographs, teaches workshops and offers DVD tutorials on composition, raw conversion, optimization, printing and marketing. Alain is the author of Mastering Landscape Photography, Mastering Photographic Composition and Marketing Fine Art Photography. All 3 books are available from Alain’s website as well as from most bookstores. You can find more information about Alain's work, writings and tutorials as well as subscribe to Alain’s Free Monthly Newsletter on his <a href="http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/">website</a>. You will receive over 40 essays in PDF format, including chapters from Alain’s books, when you subscribe.
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