Photographing wilderness
‍As a felt Experience

Meredith Fontana is a Denver-based fine art landscape photographer whose work explores wilderness, natural history, and the character of place.

Before turning her focus fully toward photography, Meredith spent more than a decade as a paleontologist, studying ancient life and the geologic history of the Earth.

She holds an undergraduate degree in evolutionary biology from The University of Texas at Austin and a graduate degree in evolutionary biology from The George Washington University, and has conducted research with leading scientific institutions across the United States, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the National Park Service, the Field Museum, and other premier natural history museums.

That scientific background continues to shape her approach to photography. Meredith sees the landscape not simply as scenery, but as a record of ancient ecosystems, geologic processes, shifting climates, and the slow forces that continue to shape the natural world.

Much of her photographic work is made far from roads, overlooks, and easily accessible viewpoints. Through long hikes, backpacking expeditions, and days spent living off the land in remote backcountry locations, Meredith seeks out landscapes that require time, effort, and patience to understand.

The intense physical challenge of hiking through these places is central to the work itself. Her photographs are not made from brief encounters with the landscape, but from complete immersion.