Photography by Richard E. Loftis
Classic Imagery
Angel Arch, 1979
Mission Tumacacori
Bryce Canyon, 1977
The Mittens, Monument Valley
“When I was growing up, I would go to the Saturday afternoon shows, for a dime, and watch all the Westerns and Serials. My visual impressions of the West were formed while watching a lot of movies that used the Monument Valley area of Arizona and Utah as a background. Later, as I traveled around the West, I never found anything that looked like the West that I had in my mind. One year returning from California I decided to take a short cut up through Arizona and Utah on my way to Colorado. As I travelled North of Kayenta, Arizona and crossed into the Monument Valley area, I suddenly saw my West, or what I had pictured in my mind was the West. There it was…all the buttes, mesas, mittens, six-shooters, the Hogans with Indians, and all the formations I was looking for. I realized that all of those Western movies were shot in Monument Valley by directors like John Ford. As time went on I travelled extensively in the area and began calling that area the Southwest, while California I called the West.” REL
Contemporary Imagery
Arches National Monument
Rancho de Taos
Monument Valley