Photographer Dan Bailey on How Intention Transformed His Mountain Photography

Photographer Dan Bailey recounts a personal journey from climbing Colorado's Centennials to thru-hiking the Colorado Trail, exploring how shifting from a goal-oriented to a question-driven approach changed his photography. After a decade climbing the state's 100 highest peaks (2018 summit of Thunder Pyramid), Bailey realized his camera work lacked curiosity. A podcast conversation with Sean Tucker about Carl Jung's two halves of life prompted a crisis. In 2024, he left a nonprofit leadership job, committed to full-time photography, and hiked the 500-mile Colorado Trail in 35 days, summiting 30 peaks along the way. He recorded nightly video reflections on psychological concepts like hormesis and gratitude. Winning the Inspired Creator grant from Nic Stover's Nature Photography Collective led to his book 'The Colorado Way', which covers the entire arc from the Centennials to the trail. Bailey emphasizes that photographers should decide what questions their work asks before starting, rather than merely documenting what's in front of them.