Blog Archives
bound for the infinite
This is one of my favorite cemeteries to photograph, and I’ve never even been inside; it’s locked all the time. There’s a path all the around the outside and the wall’s almost always low enough to see/photograph the graves.
Or if you are really lucky, you can get the wall, the graves, the mountains, and a fast-approaching thunderstorm all in one shot. (And then, if you hurry, you can get back to your car to wait out that rain.)
Galisteo, New Mexico
photographed 7.1.2024
dust to dust
It does seem sort of ludicrous that a building material made of mud and straw can durable enough to last hundreds of years. And it’s also ludicrous that over time it just melts back into the earth it originally came from.
But the best part about all of this is the way these walls, as they gradually melt away, begin to take on the shapes of the surrounding mountains.
Santa Rosa de Lima ruins
Abiquiu, New Mexico
photographed 7.3.2024
death, dancing (with sunglasses)
The route from Lubbock to Santa Fe goes through what’s left of the town of Taiban. It’s regionally famous because of the old wooden church that’s just a couple of blocks off the highway; it’s practically the law that photographers have to stop and take a million photos..
But there’s also this, a not-at-all-creepy skeleton leaning on a porch. He (?) is just off the highway and so has a great view of traffic heading west. But it’s pretty sunny out there so he (?) is careful to protect those eye sockets with a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Safety first.
Taiban, New Mexico
photographed 6.28.2024
the end of all
Two years ago, I attended Bruce Cockburn concert in this very room.
The very last song he played was the hauntingly beautiful instrumental piece ‘The End of All Rivers.” It was emotional: I was pretty sure it was the last time I would get to see him perform. I cried during the song.
And then, as the last notes faded away there was a tiny, crystal moment of silence in the room and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in reflecting on his music and how it’s touched my soul.
So when I went back into the room, empty now except for those memories, it was almost like that crystal silence was still there, waiting for me to return.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 6.29.2024
yes, that oppenheimer
109 East Palace Street – this very building – played a role in the top secret stuff that was going on up the hill in Los Alamos.
Here’s what Atlas Obscura has to say about it:
WHEN YOU NEED TO BE dropped off at a top-secret research facility that does not exist, what address do you give the driver? For two decades, that address was 109 East Palace in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Located a few blocks from Santa Fe’s city center, the unremarkable building served as the first stop for Richard Feynman, Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, and innumerable other scientists working on the top-secret Manhattan Project in nearby Los Alamos. Dozens of scientists, technicians, and other workers would arrive each day to be ferried up to “the Hill” where work on the atomic bomb (and possibly other secret science projects) actually took place.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 6.29.2024
One Day | One Image 