Scenes from California’s backyard petroculture.
Photo Gallery
Posted inJanuary 1, 2023: Ripple Effects
Can dam removal save the Snake River?
See the river as the climate changes, development continues and consequences grow with inaction.
Posted inArticles
Photos from the West, vast and varied
Take a look back at some of the images that made up the region in 2022.
Posted inNovember 1, 2022: The Futures of Conservation
Carving a future for the Tongass National Forest
In Southeast Alaska, youth help manage a forest and protect an ancient art.
Posted inOctober 1, 2022: Making Refuge
Recollecting life on the edge of the prairie
Portraits of queer life and landscape in rural Washington.
Posted inArticles
Photos: The pride and pain of the UFW march
California farmworkers and their advocates walked 335 miles to the state’s capitol in support of voting protections.
Posted inArticles
See the LA River at a fragile crossroads
Photographer Pablo Unzueta explores an urban river at peril and in constant flux.
Posted inJuly 1, 2022: Living with Rivers
The beauty buried in the data
Art created using laser data reveals the history and geological wonder of Washington’s landscape and rivers.
Posted inJune 1, 2022: A Legacy of Weapons and War
As Lake Powell levels drop, see inside Glen Canyon Dam
The hydropower plant that powers about a quarter of a million homes is run by a team of mechanics, electricians and more.
Posted inJune 1, 2022: A Legacy of Weapons and War
Witness to the Cold War in the desert
Terry Tempest Williams on Emmet Gowin’s unflinching photos of the Nevada Test Site.
Posted inMay 1, 2022: New Ways of Seeing the West
Don’t judge the negative
The weird wonderful world of the negative image.
Posted inArticles
The High Country News time capsule
What’s left behind when the pandemic forces an office closure?
Posted inApril 1, 2022: The Archives Issue
Images from the first-known Native American female photographer
Jennie Ross Cobb put her subjects at ease for uniquely candid photos from early 1900s Indian Territory.
Posted inArticles
See the Channel Islands’ stunning ecological recovery
The conservation success story is an example of what decades of work can accomplish.
Posted inArticles
The nuance and beauty of the West in 2021
From the Salton Sea to the Wind River Reservation, here are some of our most memorable photos of the year.
Posted inArticles
Seeing COP26 through the lens of Ríos to Rivers’ chief storyteller
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson’s photos take you into the streets and behind the scenes of the convention.
Posted inArticles
Coming out as trans in the rural West
A high schooler’s photo essay documents what it’s like to go through intense change in a place that never changes.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
What rebuilding from wildfire looks like
A photographer intimately documents how families are recovering one year after the Almeda Fire.
Posted inArticles
The Apache community running to rescue its holy mountain
Indigenous spiritual leaders say the Vatican’s observatory is searching for something it doesn’t understand.
Posted inArticles
The orchardist rescuing fruit trees in New Mexico
Once-diverse apple varieties are declining. Gordon Tooley wants to save them before they are gone.