Cape Horn Cave, Washington

In 1968, while doing fieldwork for a degree in Earth Science, Toedtemeier became enthralled by the ordered nature of minerals in the chaos of their stony realms.  Soon he applied to photography his scientific interest in the Northwest's rich geologic history.  The once molten lava, now hard, dark volcanic rock, transformed the land in Oregon and Washington, taking on a range of permutations – sea caves, lava tubes, monumental arches, flattened lava fields, startling craters and intricately hewn shapes.