Statuesque

Her back is quite powerful and beautiful at the same time.

Bunker Mentality

Battery Godfrey in San Francisco's Presidio is the gift that keeps on giving. Just couldn't take a bad shot in the place. As the fog moved through the WW1 battlement took on an eerie quality.

Lace

The delicate lines of this fence against the snowy white backdrop are particularly lyrical.

Taos Tipis

In the nineteenth century tipis (the right spelling) were made from hides but these 2010 versions are fabricated with heavy duty canvas. I'd been waiting for fresh snow and overcast skies to capture these imposing tents braced against the wind and single digit temperatures.

Verticality

For my money the early nineteenth century San Jose de Gracia church in Las Trampas, New Mexico is the photogenic equal of the more famous San Francisco de Asis usually known as Ranchos Church. This architectural detail depicts the the hand mudded iglesia looking quite contemporary with its vertical ebbs and flows.

Florence Junction

This sad little edifice sits in a sea of Saguaro cactus aptly named Cactus Forest. The sign on the building indicates that it was once called the Doll House begging the question of whether it was a store selling dolls or a strip club in the middle of, well, nowhere.

See No Evil

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.