"The Grand Canyon taught me a way of seeing. How to see light and design."
—John Blaustein, Grand Canyon Photographer

For the Hopi, the Grand Canyon is the Sipapu, the hole in the earth from which all life emerged. To the 16th-century Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, the first European to survey the area, it was the entrance to the seven Cities of Gold. Nearly 350 years later, the yet untamed canyon beckoned geologist and war veteran John Wesley Powell and his motley team of adventurers down the Green and Colorado Rivers. “I have [had] more excitement than a man deserves in a lifetime,” said one of Powell’s weary crew, who quit the expedition only three weeks into the journey. The Grand Canyon is wild and unforgiving. But it is also one of the most stunning landscapes on Earth—a place for recreation, reflection, and reverence.

SITES and the Grand Canyon Association present Lasting Light, a collection of 60 framed photographs of this unique natural wonder. Covering nearly 125 years of photographic history, the exhibition includes images of early photographers dangling from cables to get the perfect shot, their cumbersome camera equipment balanced precariously on their shoulders. More modern images are bold and dramatic, revealing the canyon’s capricious weather, its flora and fauna, waterfalls and wading pools, and awesome cliffs and rock formations.

Grand Canyon National Park, 2,000 square miles of snaking river beds and sheer precipices, is a world like no other, where vibrant red rocks create a striking complement to the Western sky. “What you do is keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American should see,” Teddy Roosevelt once mused. Roosevelt, ever the naturalist, was just one of the canyon’s devotees. There are millions of others, including the 26 featured photographers who snaked through the gulches and across the mesas to capture these breathtaking images.

The results of their efforts are stunning images of the canyon, selected by photographers and art critics from Eastman Kodak, National Geographic, and other well-respected experts in the field. This exhibition is truly like going on vacation.