In this 2018 evocative series, Jason Koster brings us the visual record of a rare and strenuous pilgrimage: a 23-day, 250-mile backpacking journey along California’s legendary John Muir Trail. Traversing granite spines, alpine meadows, and glacier-fed lakes and streams, Koster not only overcame the physical demands of the Sierra Nevada but also the intricate logistics of photographing under such remote and rugged conditions. The result is a body of work that is challenged by endurance and engaged by perception.
Koster’s use of panoramic image stitching pushes the traditional photographic frame beyond the limitations of a fixed frame, asking us to consider not just what we see—but how we see. These compositions stretch left and right with a painterly freedom, echoing the way the mind gathers vast landscapes in sweeping glances rather than a confined frame. As Koster prepares to photograph a scene the question emerges—Where does this picture start and where does it stop?—becoming a philosophical muse on the nature of experience, perception, and interaction.
Stripped of color and framed in stark monochrome, Koster’s landscapes are not merely records of geography, but spaces of emotional resonance and narrative tension. The skies are intentionally lightened, drawing the viewer’s gaze downward to the terrain where mountains, trees, and water engage in visual dialogues—at times tense, at times harmonious. Lakes, rendered in deep blacks, serve as emotional mirrors: their stillness invites projection, their darkness hints at unspoken depths.
There is a human presence in these images—not in figure, but in feeling. Through compositional decisions and tonal manipulation, Koster humanizes the wild, inviting the viewer into an intimate, almost meditative interaction with the land. In addition to documentation of trail and topography, there is a profound conversation between the inner and outer world.
