Workshop time has Come to an end

Thursday 25 March, 2010

Things are winding down now for me which is good because my brain is a little fried. I have worked so hard on this trip and I am feeling pretty good about the images I have made. The landscape work in particular really gives a sense of place when trying to describe Northern New Mexico.

Today we went up North to Abiquiu, famous for Ghost Ranch and the artist Georgia O'Keefe. We drove past the old Adobe House where O'Keefe lived. It was more modest than I expected. Apparently she petitioned the Catholic Church for more than ten years to buy the property because she fell in love with it. Every 6 months, she would send them a letter offering to buy the place. She was a persistent woman who knew where she wanted to live. Carlan told us how she came out one Summer from New York to Ghost Ranch to stay with friends who owned a property there. She stayed in their Guest House and loved it. She then decided to arrive unannounced another Summer to stay with them. They were happy to see her but told her that there were already people staying at the Guest House and that she would have to stay in town. She went over to the Guest House and asked the other people to leave so that she could stay there. And they did! What a nerve. It's an interesting story because by all accounts she was a lovely, eccentric and generous lady.

On the way up to Abiquiu, we drove through a town called Espanola. One of the guys was saying it is renowned as the drug capital of the USA. I need to research this myself as the source is someone who talks constantly and answers every question asked, even if not directed at him. He is either an unbelievable fountain of knowedge or a complete know-it-all. Either way, he drives me bananas and I have to sit with him in a car for at least 2 hours every day driving out to landscape shoots. A few times, I have had to correct him on things that I know he is wrong about because he has completely made it up. Sorry, bitch session over...

Anyway, imagine coming from a town with such a dubious reputation. It is one of things that could be self-perpetuating. If your town is renowned for drugs and drugs are easily available, then I guess you are more likely to be a user. I felt sad driving through Espanola. However, it seemed to have a big College there that was very modern with new buildings going up so that was certainly a sign of hope.

We went to Red Rocks at Abiquiu to photograph today. It has amazing layers of red, orange and tan volcanic rock. I walked through and over mountains of red dirt. I lay in red dirt. I fell in red dirt. I was red dirt. I guess I really got a feel for the land. It was impossible to keep my camera gear clean. There were lots of dried out gnarly old trees that I used in my images. I walked towards an interesting mountain of layered black and grey rock.

We had to be back at the cars by 5pm to head back to Santa Fe. I was being a super good girl and was back by 4.50pm. We then proceeded to wait for an hour for two other people to come back who said they had their times mixed up. Carlan and Dave had set out to find them. We thought they were lost or injured. When we could finally see them in the distance coming back from the shoot, we beeped the horn so Carlan and Dave would know they were found. We were incredulous that even though we had all been waiting an hour, M and U kept stopping to take more photos on the way back to the meeting place while we waited another 10 minutes or so. You could feel the tension when they got back. The funniest thing was that M wasn't even that sorry or contrite. Carlan was pretty annoyed when he got back from searching for them. M wasn't even listening to Carlan telling him he should have turned around in time to get back to the group. M just asked if anyone knew the name of the next town with food. Weird. All I can say is that their photos better be spectacular because they had an extra hour of time photographing while we were all worrying. I was in the car with M and two other guys on the way home and he just kept talking and calmy cleaning his camera gear as though nothing had happened. What are you going to do?


Friday 26 March, 2010

We found out today that one of the reasons Carlan was so worried about the two missing photographers yesterday was that he knew someone who had died out there while walking at Red Rocks. Scary and Sad story.....

Today I am posting home two boxes of books- scary I know. I am my Mother's daughter in that regard and I think she would be proud that I have inherited her thirst for knowedge. There are so many books that I have bought here because they are either not available back home or are far more expensive in NZ. Each book I have bought is either an inspiration to me or a reminder of the beauty and history of this place. I have also been given two photography books. The inventory list is as follows:

The Moment it Clicks- Joe McNally
American Farmer- Paul Mobley
A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 -Annie Liebovitz
Billy The Kid by Michael Wallis
Gustav Bauman's Southwest by Joseph Traugott
Last Lion The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy by the team at The Boston Globe
A second hand book called The Art of Andrew Wyeth
Highlights from the Collection at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum
Mary Colter - Architect of the Southwest by Arnold Berke
Two hand made oval enamel plates- one orange with maple leaves and one with green leaves.
My two travel books I brought from NZ- Lonely Planet Santa Fe & Taos and DK Top Ten Santa Fe
Inventing Los Alamos by Jon Hunner

Today we went to Chimayo Sanctuary for our last shoot. It is a very sacred area where pilgrims travel in their thousands to each year. Particularly over Holy week. Next Friday there will be tens of thousands there for the Easter Weekend. It is both beautiful and run down at the same time. The main Church is renovated and well maintained. The buildings around look quite dilapidated. SOMe of the houses look like junkyards. It is interesting to see such a juxtaposition. Apparently we recently as 8 years ago, it was an area where cocaine was pushed to the youth to make quick money. There is now a strong sense of community trying to get things right again. As I walked around, I really felt the warmtha nd friendship of the people who are there to worship.

When we got back to class, we edited and processed our images. I was happy with my shots because I felt that I caught the spiritual nature of Chimayo. Photography is not permitted inside the Church so I focused on the space around, particularly the landscape near the river and some of the religious iconography.

Well it's time to go to the final dinner now so farwell for now.