8 Years of Photographic Excellence

   Terra Quantum has been launched with the goal of gathering the most beautiful pictures of our planet and of providing an international reference for exceptional landscape photography.
   To achieve this excellence, a permanent jury carefully considers each photo that is submitted to decide whether it will be published on the site. 8 years later we are happy to welcome a large community with 400 photographers from around the world who have published a total of around 1500 images; each of them has been reviewed by the Terra Quantum international jury.

News

Selection of September 2023: Dream of Rain by Alex Noriega
Nov 27, 2023

I didn't have much time to try many variations, so I wanted to shoot as wide as possible so that ...

Selection of August 2023: Solitude by Huibo Hou
Oct 29, 2023

This image holds a special place for me as a landscape photographer. It is from a trip that left ...

Selection of July 2023: Bridalveil Fall Winter Into Spring by Charlotte Gibb
Sep 25, 2023

"...Then, a cloud of misty fog, a spontaneous gift of cold, damp mornings in the park, rolled in ...

Talk #13: Artificial Intelligence Revolution
Sep 24, 2023

Artificial Intelligence is happening, whether we like it or not. Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th century brought fears, a range of social issues and eventually, unrest. Similarly, but well over 200 years later, AI brings anxiety and insecurity. It is unavoidable that AI will affect negatively many people in multiple industries. Unlike our predecessors, we are not going to arm ourselv...

Selection of June 2023: Blue Horizon by Isabelle Bacher
Aug 26, 2023

It fascinates me to visualize the architecture and forms that nature has created from the Ice Age...

Selection of May 2023: untitled by Hans Strand
Aug 05, 2023

As in most cases with my aerials I excluded the horizon, since that enhances the abstraction that...

Tribute

IN 1968 I DROVE WITH SOME FRIENDS along old Highway 163 south of Moab where I noticed a sign for a road heading west to the Needles and Anticline Overlooks. Passing such road signs or seeing interesting trails or roads on a map filled me with the desire to explore these unknown places, and I promised myself I would return to the Canyon Country and spend my life seeking out these hidden treasures of silence, stone, and sunburnt majesty.

Now, forty years later, I've done pretty well. I've run all the rivers many, many times, risking life and limb in the process, I hiked hundreds of narrow defiles and swam in water that was dangerously frigid. I visited many canyons where water, rushing from springs, walls, waterfalls and seeps was the main ingredient, creating the lush sandstone temples and cathedrals that dazzle the mind and heart. I hiked with a 45 pound camera pack hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles. I gazed into the abyss and it gazed into me.

I marveled at the work and artistry of the ancients, whose remnants add so much mystery and mood to an already unfathomable landscape. I crawled on my hands and knees countless times, every time thinking of Ed Abbey’s admonishment to do so to really bond with the Colorado Plateau desert. Some people have seen more than I, but not many.

The Canyons of Utah have been photographed a great deal. Inspired by the younger generation, many of whom see photography as a more painterly and impressionistic art form than my generation, I’ve experimented a little with a few of the images here. I don’t believe that the beauty of Utah Canyons needs to be improved by photography but I do believe that the Canyons can be interpreted by photography in different ways.

One thing has not changed. The Canyons of Utah are under constant attack. The ethereal light that bathes them in an other-worldly glow is weakened and strangled at times by dirty air coming from a variety of man-made sources. People now come to these places with no thought of their beauty and fragility. They are unprepared to accept the sand stone majesty and the scope of a landscape so much bigger and more complex than anything they have encountered in their 21st century life.

As we enter the second decade of the new century, there are some signs of hope. Local politicians have in some cases, seen that wilderness and national parks are not liabilities but assets, and that many who initially oppose such land designations find themselves changing their mind as time passes. I believe many of my neighbors in Southern Utah who say they love the land as much as anyone and want to save it unsullied for future generations to enjoy.

Tom Till