The Searcher

Photograph by Carlo Mogavero , National Geographic Your Shot

A lone rider is dwarfed by the immensity of Utah s Monument Valley. Your Shot member Carlo Mogavero had the benefit of a clear day and an iconic setting but, he writes, his shot was missing a subject. Suddenly a cowboy started to climb the cliff, and I began to hope that the guy was going to reach the right position, he writes. I waited for a while, and luckily the cowboy went [onto] the rock. For Mogavero, the scene evoked the classic Western films of Sergio Leone and John Ford, once viewed on a black-and-white television.

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