Morada Libre

There’s not a whole lot to say about these two images. The first is a rather traditional (hackneyed) shot of a ladder against an faux adobe wall the other is a (hackneyed) window and real adobe vignette at La Morada de Nuestra Señor de Guadalupe. So, the connection is either adobe or hackneyed.

Come to think of it, there is a story lurking beneath the surface of image two and is that of access or lack thereof to the aforementioned morada. My understanding has been that the rights of the public and, specifically, of artists and photographers to visit and depict the morada was guaranteed in the agreement that conveyed the morada from the Taos Historic Museums to the archdiocese of Santa Fe about ten years ago. Rebutting that belief is a conspicuously placed sign on the entry gate to the morada which says that painting and photography are not allowed. I have conspicuously ignored said sign, the evidence of which is flaunted above.

The last time Peggy and an artist friend attempted to paint there they were told to cease and desist by an officious member of the Penitente Brotherhood who said that the morada is a sacred place which would be defiled if memorialized by camera toting barbarians. I paraphrase liberally.

After a short interchange which culminated by Peggy saying. “I don’t want to debate it with you anymore.” she and her friend departed the scene. I, on the other hand, will photograph the morada this very day as a matter of principal.

Form follows Function

Of late, especially on Instagram, I’ve been posting photographs of ordinary mechanical things; wires, conduit, pipes and the like. I've referred to this series as "The backside of the frontside." To my surprise, the images of things that are not in the least artful have been among the best received. Go figure.

I will surmise that the appeal stems from the geometric designs that are a product the efforts of engineers, electricians and plumbers who, generally speaking, try to install these functional things in a trim, straight and plumb fashion (except for the wires which are a nightmare of tangled webs) and that order creates tempting patterns like these.

We don't need no stinking camera

Of late I’ve been ducking into alleys and behind the monotonous blur of postcard scenes that abound in Taos. If you who follow me on Instagram you've seen plenty of these since our visit to Pueblo, Colorado back in March. All of those Instagram pics were shot with my iphone 7 which is always at hand and which boosts I mighty fine onboard camera. As my friend John Farnsworth jokes, “It’s a camera that’s also a phone.” 

The backstreet images here were made with an honest to gosh camera, my Canon 5D Mk lll. The mighty unit is the third most used camera among the professional class behind a couple of Nikons. Truth be told, the iphone performs some kind of alchemy and has left me wondering whether a big megapixel camera is even necessary. I say that barely in jest.

Señor Farnsworth has already reached that conclusion. At this very moment the boy is wending his way back to Taos after some four months in his beloved Antigua.

Bien venidos, Juanito.                   

Simple and intricate

I was wandering around Taos Plaza looking for obscure mechanical elements to photograph. That dictated ducking into alleys as I am wont to do. Then there was the appealing Orthodox Jewish family that I tracked for several blocks, hoping to capture their black attire, yarmulkes and payot (sidelocks) that seemed more at home on Manhattan's Lower East Side than Taos. Coming up empty I placed myself smack dab in the middle of the plaza in order to capture the budding trees and sky above me.

The intricacy of trees never ceases to amaze.