When most hikers are headed off the trail, Jonathan Knight is just getting started. The Denver-based artist prefers to photograph about 45 minutes after sunset, during “the last few minutes the sky has any blue hue in it and the last few minutes you can see without an external light source,” he shares. Once deep in the forest, Knight captures majestic waterfalls that cascade from rocky cliffs, their mist casting an ethereal haze across the scene.
“I had many nights of walking back two, three, four miles to the car alone with just a camera on my back and headlamp on my head,” he shares. “There was nothing more spooky than seeing the telltale glow of eyes within the beam of the headlamp. Lucky for me it was only ever our friends like elk or deer.”
Throughout 2022, Knight scouted waterfalls across California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. He documented each in his signature minimal style, using low contrast to accentuate the natural beauty of his subject matter. “This project is really about the figure of the waterfall against negative space. The shape of the water becomes the subject,” he adds.
Knight offers prints of the Waterfalls series on his website, where you can view the entire collection. Follow his work on Instagram.
