Colorado wildlife photographer John Fielder’s work will soon grace a U.S. stamp as part of the state’s 150th anniversary celebration, the U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday.
The prolific and popular Colorado nature photographer, who died in 2023 at 73, is getting his very own stamp this month with Colorado Statehood, as the edition will be called.
An image of Jagged Mountain shot by late Colorado wildlife photographer John Fielder was chosen by the U.S. Postal Service as its 150th birthday stamp for Colorado. (Provided by USPS)
The forever-stamp features a photo of Jagged Mountain, a picturesque thirteener located in the San Juan Mountain Range of southwestern Colorado shot by Fielder, with design by Derry Noyes, according to a statement.
The U.S. Postal Service will hold a free, public “first-day-of-issue” event at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24, at History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway in Denver, with commemorative editions of the stamp. Attendees can RSVP at usps.com/coloradostamp.
The location is no accident, as the release coincides with the opening of History Colorado’s own John Fielder exhibit, “Mountains Majesty: On the Summit with John Fielder.”
Fielder’s exhibit, which features “sun-dappled valleys and … rugged slopes in our state’s colorful scenery,” according to museum officials, joins the museum’s full Colorado Collection of Fielder’s work, which he donated to the institution before his death for noncommercial, research and student use.
“As History Colorado members selected photographs for this exhibition, I was struck by their deep emotional connection to John Fielder’s work,” said exhibition developer and historian Katherine Mercier in a statement. “His powerful photos of Colorado’s mountains brought back personal memories of the state’s beauty and wonder. This exhibition is a love letter to John Fielder and his mountain photographs from History Colorado’s members.”
History Colorado’s 6,000-image Fielder collection can be accessed for free at historycolorado.org/john-fielders-colorado-collection, To RSVP for the Jan. 24 event or get more information on collector’s versions of the 20-stamp sheets, visit usps.com/coloradostamp.