The Bison on Main
Telluride, Colorado – 2023

The backdrop to Main Street in Telluride is visually arresting: the mountain face offers a sense of journey’s end as it bullies the old mining community below. Colorado is known for its boxed canyons and we shoot regularly in both Creed and Telluride. The natural vortex afforded by the topography offers filmmakers every opportunity to tell layered stories.

Closing Main Street to traffic on a Sunday morning requires the full support of the community and we are blessed with many friends in the famous resort. Without their support and advocacy, this idea could never have been executed. I have long been committed to the idea that the art of photography is as much about access as it is about the mechanics of a camera.

My visual sensibility had long dictated that this had to be a winter shot: the bison is defined by its fortitude and the best natural props to make this association are snow and ice. We were fortunate with the cold weather early that morning, it added another layer to the story and gave the image a sense of season to accompany the necessary sense of place.

This is a well photographed street, but I just wonder whether this scene is unprecedented. I hope so - that is always uplifting.