Monthly Archives: April 2019
Steeple
Every photographer who ever went to New Mexico has, from the looks of things, photographed this old church. (I’m guilty of it: here, here, here, and as recently as yesterday.)
The poor old thing looks worse every time I pass by, and I know for sure that one of these days, I’ll pull up and it will have fallen all the way over. On my last drive by there, I was traveling alone and my mind wandered around* and eventually settled on this Grand Idea: after the building does fall over, there ought to be a show of all the photographs made of the place. It’d take a big space…
Taiban, New Mexico
photographed 3.14.2019
*Yes, my mind does wander all the time. But a few hours into a solo road trip and it gets even more wandery.
Prairie Window
This old church is the main – some would say only – landmark in Taiban, New Mexico. It’s on the route between home and Albuquerque or Santa Fe, and I stop in nearly every time I’m through town. Last spring, the glassless windows were nice frames for a view of the prairie east of town.
Taiban, New Mexico
photographed 5.25.2018
Modes of modern travel
The American Southwest is dotted with motels that didn’t make it. Travel patterns changed, towns not on the Interstate highway system got smaller, air travel became more affordable, people were in too much of a hurry to even consider an overnight stay in a place like Encino, New Mexico.
And, so, here, the Photography Gods blessed me with an illustration of how all those things impacted the Encino Motel, which could not be saved by new management and/or low rates.
Encino, New Mexico
photographed 3.23.2019
Blurry crosses of Chimayó
The walk from the parking area up to the sacred church has a chain link fence on one side where people leave crosses and other items woven into the wire. On my most recent visit, as I stood looking at the artifacts and to the building beyond, I let me eyes focus on the distance, which blurred the fence and its contents. And I made a photo.
Later, the blurry crosses and the diamonds of the fence started to make me think of women’s hats, that kind with the dotted-net veil, and this scene started to feel like what the world would look like from behind a hat veil.
I know. None of this makes any sense: welcome to the way my mind wanders around.
El santuario de Chimayó
Chimayó, New Mexico
photographed 3.16.2019
Window/Frame
When I’ve taken classes from the wonderful Sam Abell, he always speaks of the use of internal framing to make photographs more layered and more interesting. Although he was really encouraging more subtle uses of internal framing, sometimes there is a flagrant example. Like right here.
(Maybe all photographers are like this – the scene as they saw and photographed it seems like it’ll be there forever, unchanged, as though the photograph became the scene. I am that way, so when I passed through this town a week after I made this photo, I was very disappointed that the machinery had vanished.)
Yeso, New Mexico
photographed 3.14.2019
One Day | One Image 