Head Shots

Two Fridays ago photographer Daryl Black and I scoured Santa Fe for new looks at The City Different.  No mean trick.  On museum hill we played with shadows cast by elaborate portals and arbors.  Daryl said the patterns of light and shadow seemed almost Mayan to her.

After lattes at the Garcia Street Bookstore we crossed town to the railyard for trains, a personal fave, and industrial buildings that have been converted into galleries and studios.  After a fruitless effort with the engines and  carriages, I speak for myself, we wandered down the tracks for some grittier inspiration.  There we found a warehouse with graffiti covered walls and outsized portraits.  Daryl caught me snapping one of the behemoth heads.  

Ranch View Motel and Burger Emporium

Is it just me or is it hungry out?  Giant Burgers you say.  Truth be told, the advertised mongo burger was a run of the mill 1/3 pound number, the one folks get to call big, bigger or gigundo.   But, you ask, “Isn’t this image about an eatery in middle of nowhere New Mexico, a throwback to a kinder, gentler time in rural 1950’s America?”

Ruffles Have Ridges

These are for Thea Swengel who shares my fascination with corrugated buildings.  Both images are from the Chama yard of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad.  I don’t know where the appeal lies but I’d guess it's the linear repetition and the things that happen when shadows interact with the dead straight verticals.  Or maybe I have no idea whatsoever.

The Same Thing Only Different

Yesterday while hiking and photographing at Georgia O'Keefe's beloved Ghost Ranch I had the realization that each time I visit a familiar site I see it anew.  I see new things and I frame the same subjects in new ways.  That's why a photographer might return to Point Lobos dozens or scores of times and still find it fresh.

So it is with these two images of white windows on a richly textured old adobe.  They were taken several years apart and are very different takes on a tried and true subject. 

Vielle Ferme

The last two years I’ve been awarded First Place for photography at the Museum of the Southwest’s spring juried exhibition.  I’m honored by the recognition and thankful for the Midland Arts Association’s stewardship of the show.  The museum, as I said last year, is a jewel of a place and a must see if you’re in West Texas.  The show runs through April 29. 

Each year I’m surprised by the bounty of wonderful art at the museum.  Showing along with the spring juried show last year was the Plein Air Painters of America’s National Parks exhibition and this year the museum features 100 Years of Photographs of the Grand Canyon.  There’s also a gallery devoted to Taos Masters.  So there’s a lot to see in beautiful downtown Midland.

Vielle Ferme is the winning photograph which comes from our September in Provence.   The meticulously tilled old farm had been in cultivation since middle ages and the rugged stone building for nearly as long.  Only its metal door and cinder block reinforcements betray modernity.  An epic sky completes the ensemble.  Ain’t life grand?

In January the color iteration of Vielle Ferme was on display, and sold most quickly, at the Millicent Rogers Museum’s miniatures show.  This is the rare image that seems to work as well in color as black and white.  As a mostly black and white shooter I lean to monochrome.  Here not so much.  What do you think?

For awhile now I’ve been flirting with the idea of offering specific images at especially attractive prices for that week (the day of the post through the following Sunday).   You receive a signed, editioned 8x12 inch archival pigment print on 13x19 inch Moab Entrada paper for $150.  This is normally $225.  Vielle Ferme is available in color or black and white, a comparitive rarity.

If interested, email me a steve@steveimmelphotography.com.  Thanks all.