Chimayo Christmas

In a rare splash of color here's the Santuario de Chimayo, often called the "Lourdes of America" for the curative powers of its sacred healing dirt. This early evening shot captures the Christmas glow of the adobe chapel that was built in 1816. The Santuario or Sanctuary is considered the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in the U.S.

The rest of the story

This is the flip side of Wrenching Sadness that was posted last week. It speaks for itself.

Wrenching Sadness

The inscription carved into this crude wooden headstone memorializes little Amari Rose who lived but one day. The tragedy of her loss is amplified by the lonely location of her grave at the top of a hill by a barb wire fence in a bleak New Mexico ghost town. And in winter as if for emphasis.

Sod Buster

I was taken by the austerity of this old farmhouse. The spare geometric nature of the simple building reverberates with the barren plain that surrounds it.

Frontier Drive-in

The Frontier Drive In has been closed for as long as I can remember. The property is littered with the hulks of junked travel trailers, cars and a sinister building with a school bus out back. You don't know if it's really abandoned or still inhabited by some freak with a chainsaw.

All Fall Down

Nestled against the towering mountains lies the hippy dippy village of Crestone, Colorado. This corner cottage decays one brick and galvanized strip at a time while offering a melancholy counterpoint to the pristine peaks just behind it.

Welcome. We're Closed.

Rice, California said adios in the seventies. Situated in the Mojave Desert maybe 50miles from Blythe the empty crossroads has been left to die. All that's left is the shell of gas station and dozens of idle railroad cars.

Plastic Flowers and Rust

Here's yet another shot from the redoubtable Elizabethtown, New Mexico. There's a whole series to be made from this thoughtfully decorated slowly disintegrating old convertable on the hillside.

Lonely Planet

Continuing our theme of desperate dead ends in America we offer another look at beautiful downtown Keeler, California. The once bustling mining mecca is one more Owens River Valley community left for dead by LA's unquenchable thirst for water.

Moffat Church RIP

According to locals Moffat, Colorado's protestant church closed its doors six years ago. The church was unsafe and too expensive to heat for the 114 residents of the withering town. Once a bustling mining and ranching community of 2,500 and a likely state capitol it has become little more than a wide spot in the road.

This isn't Kansas any more, Toto.

If it weren't for the Sangre de Cristos rising to 14,000 feet in the background this shell of a farm house might be in western Kansas or Nebraska. Instead it resides in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. At 7,500 feet and measuring 121 miles long and 74 miles wide the San Luis is the largest alpine valley in the world.

Cemetary Hill

At at about 9000 feet in the rugged Sangre de Cristo mountains Elizabethtown is a treasure trove of memories. The town's graveyard sits on a hilltop with a commanding view of the Moreno Valley. This particularly handsome grave lies at the highest point on cemetary hill.

Water Tanks

The wide spot in the road called Nageezi, New Mexico is part of the Navajo Nation and lies far from any significant population center. Without water there is no life so these white tanks symbolize that a few souls actually live and procreate on this unforgiving patch of earth.

Crossing Pattern

Con Trails and highlines cross in the blue sky above Santa Fe. On my way to photograph The City Different's Saturday market I looked up to see this wonderful design forming above me.

Big, Empty

This bleak image is one my entries in the Taos Fall Arts Invitational that opens this weekend. The unforgiving scene reflects the utter desolation of the dying town of Keeler, California where a dozen or so oddballs defy 120 degree summers and bone chilling winters to be alone in its wrenching beauty.

Sirens of the West Mesa

This is about as far from a bridge in the fog as you can get. Aerialists in lingerie for heaven's sake. With the sun dropping below the western horizon these ladies performed lofty feats of derring while suspended from a crane-like structure high above the desert.

The Bridge to Nowhere

The fog moved slowly westward with patches of sunlight exposing the Golden Gate Bridge. In this image vehicles disappear into nothingness and the fearsome prospect of a nosedive into the straights below.

Cloaked in Fog

The fog off the bay made this image seem out of focus when, in fact, stationary objects in the picture are tack sharp. Part of this impression was accomplished by using a very long exposure to capture the ephemeral and mysterious nature of the slowly moving fog.

Rose's Eyes

Rose has elaborate tattoos and baleful eyes. Here those magical eyes are set off by alabaster skin that seems to have never seen the sun.

And Another Thing

This one is for you neo-cons (you know who you are) who think last week's high key post was not "a Steve Immel photograph." Taken in the same lighting conditions, this image is closer to an 'as shot' shot where I haven't blown the bejeezus out of the background. Whaddaya like?

Nima

My friend Steve Ray and I photographed the glorious Nima Nejad at the Presidio of San Francisco. The morning floated from fog to sun and back again as we shot him in the long closed battlements that line the bay within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. With a light gray hoodie and gray sky this shot lent itself to a high key interpretation that fused the garment with the fog.

Dado

The dude walks into a room and all eyes are riveted on his wispy and white chin feathers. After 27 years in the military he now works for the BLM . He's also a photography buff who buys lenses as a hobby. His latest is some slow 1300mm. Gotta see him hand hold that beast. "But it was cheap", sez Dado. There's that.

Early Grave

The hilltop cemetary in Elizabethtown is strewn with humble gravestones and makeshift adornments. The teddy bear decorating the grave of a young child was especially poignant. Winter's last snow clung to the ground rendering the moment achingly sad and simply beautiful

Crossed Arms

This torso belongs to the disembodied legs several entries ago. I'm fond of the way the sun highlights the model's right arm. Naturally lit, this image depicts healthy athleticism and natural beauty.

Meeting Place

America's tallest dunes are 800 feet high and lie just beneath the 14,000 foot high Sangre de Cristo mountains in southern Colorado. These amazing hills of sand are blown off and formed again by winds that scour the San Luis Valley to their west.

Ornamentation

Elizabethtown, New Mexico is almost a ghost town. There may be a dozen residents today. Along with a smattering of abandoned buildings and a captivating little cemetary was the hulk of a thirties vintage automobile that some creative soul had decorated with plastic flowers. The effect was much like flowers placed on a grave to honor the departed.

Camera Magnet

It's funny how some folks love the camera and the camera returns the favor. Alain Comeau is such a character. He's not classicly handsome but definitely has the French thing going on. Easy to use. Easy to shoot. Works like a charm.

All Legs

My model was in a classic beach position on the mantel of a kiva fireplace in an old hacienda. As a globetrotting professional figure model the hardest thing to get was an unposed appearing shot. This image seemed to accomplish two things; to be both natural and abstract at the same time. The light was through a skylight that was diffused through a scrim mounted just above her

Decommisioned

The sun was low in the sky when I photographed the Frontier Drive-in near Antonito, Colorado. Defunct along with the closed theatre was this line up of decommisioned trailers; four of which were gleaming aluminum. Their reflective surfaces punctuated the scene as the 14,000 foot Sangre de Cristos rose above the San Luis Valley.

Butternut Squash

Occasionally I revisit a significant photograph from the past. This one of a bushel of Butternut Squash was taken just after leaving the Fryeburg Fair in western Maine. The weather outside was frightful or threatening to get that way fast. There was a gentle mist at the moment the image was made. The even light produced lovely mid-tones and tremendous luminosity. The richness of this image sealed my decision to go digital from capture to print. That was late September 2003.

Muffler Art

I've photographed a defunct gallery called "Outsider Art" on numerous occasions. Quirky assemblages of mechanical flotsam and jetsam adorn the exterior offering limitless still lifes and abstract compositions. This muffler welded vertically was the clear focal point of this image.

At the Marienplatz

On our way to some glorious back country skiing in Austria we spent three grand days in Munich and one beer soaked night the its famous Hofbrau Haus. The heart of the Bavarian Capitol's Old Town is the broad urban plaza called the Marienplatz. This ornate building once housed the state's legislature. A light rain had just fallen leaving the air clean and the details of the grand ediface ever so sharp.

Happy's Face

This polished study in chrome is of a friend's 1939 Chevy. The big old sedan was Terry's pride and joy till he sold it recently. The photograph was taken during magic light; those moments just after the sun goes down when there's an even, shadowless light. I love the graphic quality of this shot.

Above Lama

It was a blustery spring evening just before an unseen sun dipped below the western horizon. This forlorn dwelling looked past the Rio Grande and north to southern Colorado. Not far away, maybe half a mile, stood Lama Foundation one of the original hippy communes that were built in northern New Mexico the mid 1960s.

Budding Up

Unbelievably this is a natural light photograph taken in mid-afternoon beside the historic meeting house in Eaton, New Hampshire. The plant was very close to the meeting house wall and somewhat protected from the raking sun. I underexposed substantially so the background faded to black as though I had shot against black seamless with a single snooted keylight on the buds.

Las Toallas

Truth be known I don't remember if these drying towels were in San Miguel de Allende or Dolores Hidalgo. They lived in one of those colonial cities in the Mexican highlands that is certain. This shot feels like somebody's catching lunch nearby.

Adobe Motif

In late spring I photographed in a sprawling hacienda in the village of Bernalillo, New Mexico. This shot was taken in the enclosed courtyard with natural overhead light filtered through a scrim to soften the effect. The image has been toned to reflect the setting, the sun and the model in repose.

My 55

Tangled in vines this New Hampshire Crown Victoria hadn't hit road in many a year. The two tone coupe replete with continental kit was a body double for the one we had in my family back when we all liked Ike.

More Found Art

As I was waiting for the The Cache Gallery in Fort Collins to open and not wanting to leave the immediate area I challenged myself to find a worthy subject for inclusion in my Found Art Series. Quick as a blink I was taken by the remarkable elegance of the gas meter and pipes on the adjacent building. Voila!

The fence at the top of the world

I spent the better part of two days at more than 10,000 feet photographing along the high road between Tres Piedras and Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. Highway 64, among the state's highest and most scenic rises 3,000 feet above the desert floor through classic ranchland and into Aspen forest. In late April two feet of fresh snow had fallen leaving a smooth, soft surface through which junipers and fence posts stood in stark contrast.

Plane Geometry

Driving south on Highway 285 just north of Antonito, Colorado I saw a corrugated building with late afternoon shadows that fell just so. The vertical seams of the aluminum siding and the fully black shadows created precise diagonals and striking geometric shapes.

Filigree

These shimmering, silvery leaves at El Charco Botannical Gardens in San Miguel de Allende intermingle with dozens of varieties of succulents and cacti in the high desert of Central Mexico.

Spider's Web

Electrical wiring in San Miguel de Allende is nothing if not creative as demonstrated by this elaborate bit of wizardry. This street light in our neighborhood, Colonia Obraje, glows against a dimming sky.

Sketches of Winter at Wilder Nightingale

During the second week of the New Year I was honored to join the fine roster of artists at the highly regarded Wilder Nightingale Gallery in Taos. This recent image called Fade to White is part of the growing Sketches of Winter series that is being featured at the gallery.

World View

Just north of the border in Colorado I encountered this lonely little building with a very big view. Across the broad San Luis Valley the Sangre de Cristo mountains rose large above the plains.