A new exhibit is opening at the History Colorado Center, celebrating the state’s most beloved nature photographer. 

“Mountains Majesty: On the Summit with John Fielder” will debut at the downtown Denver center with a ceremony Saturday morning that will also debut a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp. Made for Colorado’s 150th anniversary of statehood this year, the stamp features an image Fielder took over his illustrious career spanning 50 years — one picked among several others for the “Mountains Majesty” exhibit. 

They are among a large collection Fielder donated to History Colorado in 2023. He died that year following a bout with cancer. 

“John Fielder will always be ‘Colorado’s Photographer,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release announcing “Mountains Majesty.” 

The exhibit is the third in a rotating series in History Colorado Center’s John Fielder Mezzanine Gallery, the site that has joined countless homes and offices displaying the man’s work, not to mention books and calendars. “Mountains Majesty” will showcase photos that were picked by History Colorado members, alongside the exhibit’s developer, Katherine Mercier. 

As they picked, “I was struck by their deep emotional connection to John Fielder’s work,” Mercier said in the news release. “His powerful photos of Colorado’s mountains brought back personal memories of the state’s beauty and wonder.”

It is the lasting impact of Fielder, who prided himself for covering Colorado’s 104,984 square miles by foot, ski, raft, wheels and horseback. 

He loved the state’s largest wilderness area, western Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness. Tucked deep in the Weminuche is Jagged Mountain — the lesser photographed peak seen on the U.S. Postal Service’s commemorative stamp. 

The Colorado Statehood Forever stamp will be unveiled at Saturday’s opening ceremony for “Mountains Majesty,” starting at 8:30 a.m. From then until noon, the first stamps will be sold along with specially designed envelopes called First Day Covers.  

And the morning will be the first time to view the exhibit, which “invites visitors to ascend through sun-dappled valleys, explore rugged slopes, and take in Colorado’s colorful scenery on a photographic journey through the mountains with John Fielder,” according to History Colorado’s billing. 

Access to the John Fielder Mezzanine Gallery is included with general admission to the History Colorado Center, open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets are $20; youth 18 and younger are free.