Posts Tagged ‘nature’
Posted on June 30, 2026, 3:36 pm, by QT Luong, under
Projects.
(click on images to enlarge) Across the country, cities are reclaiming marginal lands, often in places where unhoused people have lived. The Trail, Cleared examines what happens when ecological recovery and human displacement occupy the same ground. The work grows out of my long engagement with the Coyote Creek Trail, a corridor I photographed repeatedly […]
Posted on May 29, 2026, 3:15 pm, by QT Luong, under
Projects.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/time-in-the-trail The Coyote Creek Trail has become part of my own geography. I ran there. I walked there. I returned again and again, now close to two hundred times. That repetition changed what I saw. At first, the trail appeared to be a narrow band of nature running through San Jose: trees, grasses, water, birds. […]
Posted on March 30, 2026, 1:52 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/baaj-nwaavjo-itah-kukveni-ancestral-footprints-of-the-grand-canyon-national-monument The first step is to pronounce and remember: Baahj-Nuh-Waahv-Joh Ee-Tah-Kook-Venny. The name itself slows you down. “Baaj Nwaavjo” in Havasupai means “where the ancient people roamed,” while “I’tah Kukveni” is the Hopi translation of “ancestral footsteps.” The monument’s full name makes clear that this is not empty land, not just scenery, and not simply […]
Posted on November 28, 2025, 12:12 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/national-parks-and-monuments-during-the-shutdown By the time I arrived in New Mexico this November, the numbers out of Washington were already worse than in April. Since the presidential inauguration, the National Park Service has now shed roughly a quarter of its permanent staff through buyouts, forced retirements, rescinded offers, and an ongoing hiring freeze. The “One Big Beautiful […]
Posted on October 29, 2025, 12:22 pm, by QT Luong, under
Projects.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/the-trails-evolution-and-artistic-lineage In 2014, my brother-in-law Nhon—a dedicated bicyclist—first introduced us to the Coyote Creek Trail. The photo from that first outing pictures my family: my son up ahead, my wife, and Nhon. We returned occasionally after that, weaving small loops together, moving through the corridor more as participants than as observers. Back then it felt […]
Posted on July 28, 2025, 2:02 pm, by QT Luong, under
Recollections.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/the-trek-zanskar-1989 In the summer of 1989, I set foot in Asia for the first time—a formative journey that expanded both my view of the world and the role photography could play in it. A few years earlier, college friends at Polytechnique had introduced me to climbing, and I had taken to it immediately. Photography followed […]
Posted on February 27, 2025, 11:57 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
http://www.terragalleria.com/blog/two-arches-in-joshua-tree-national-park Natural rock arches are rare in California’s deserts compared to places like Utah because of differences in geology and climate. Most natural arches form in soft sandstone, but California’s desert regions have mostly harder granite, metamorphic, or volcanic rocks. Freeze-thaw cycles and sustained water flows are less frequent than on the Colorado Plateau. Yet […]
Posted on January 28, 2025, 5:20 pm, by QT Luong, under
Projects.
http://www.terragalleria.com/blog/coyote-creek-trail-project After spending a quarter-century photographing the vast, iconic landscapes of America’s national parks, I turned my attention to the landscapes of my own city, San Jose, California. This shift in my practice mirrors an evolution in environmental thought: from conserving distant wilderness to embracing an inclusive ecology that acknowledges the complex, intertwined relationship between […]
Posted on October 31, 2024, 5:09 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/wildlife-along-the-trail “Landscape without wildlife is just scenery” is a quote used by Kris Tompkins, the subject of the inspirational Wild Life (2023) movie, to discuss the world’s largest rewilding project that she and Doug Tompkins initiated in Patagonia. It would appear that the ribbon of land along suburban Coyote Creek Trail isn’t doing too badly […]
Posted on October 14, 2024, 11:26 pm, by QT Luong, under
Esthetics.
https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/the-trouble-with-wilderness Finding meaning often begins with crafting a personal narrative. When we shape our experiences into stories, we discover clarity, purpose, and a deeper connection to ourselves. With that in mind, while reflecting on my work in landscape photography, I realized that its development mirrored the historic evolution of the genre, and also of environmentalism. […]
