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20th Oct 2005
After O'Keeffe ...
Thursday, 20th October, 2005
It was all fairly cosy in the hostel last night, but outside, before the sun had managed to creep its way around Mount Wheeler, it was freezing … literally. The ground was crisp underfoot and the air bitingly clear as it hit your nostrils. Anne and I decided to break out quite early for a walk to check out the area.
We found a small café nearby called the Gypsy Café which looked ideal for purpose and we went back to rouse the boys for breakfast. They didn’t need too much rousing and we were soon all next door … in just before the rush … and placed orders. Tall mochas and hot chocolates to drink and then came the dictum ... “When in Mexico …” and so Harry and Ben both had Huelvos Rancheros (Rancher’s Eggs) which was a brave and entertaining decision.
As soon as the plates arrived, Harry thought he’d snaffle a quick preview but took a forkful of a suspicious green section on the far side of his plate which gave him a bit of a surprise. It also reminded him that the water we’d ordered hadn’t arrived. Both boys did remarkably well, amid a certain amount of sweating and a couple of pints of fluids.
For the rest of us, ‘When in Mexico … ’, means that you have pancakes, maple syrup and bacon … just to be on the safe side.
Today we were to explore a little bit of the world of Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams … but first we went to Taos Pueblo a supposed living Indian community just outside the village.
Its good, but quite contrived. You get charged to go in ($10 … fair enough), you then get charged per camera ($5) you then get assigned a guide who tells you several times what you can and can’t do and what questions he can and can’t answer (nothing for example relating to Indian religious customs) and he also emphasises that it is customary to tip for his services ....
The guide spins you around for about 20 minutes and judging by the wadges of notes being palmed across, makes a fortune for his work. After this, you are ‘free’ to wander at will.
It smacks slightly of the artificiality of some of the African villages which are choreographed for the tourists. There were loads of stray dogs who were probably also doing pretty well out of the tourists. One, which it has to be said is probably the ugliest dog I have ever seen, latched itself onto Harry (standing in for his mother as resident animal soft-touch). This thing had a lower jaw which stuck out a good half inch beyond its upper … and there were others only a matter of weeks old which careered around the place feeding almost as well as the guides off the abundance of tourists.
I chatted to a couple of the ‘artists’ selling their wares and without prompting they gave me amazing descriptions their lives up until the 60s, painting vivid pictures of family life around the fire in the corner of the room, of the music and story telling and dancing which took place on the very spot where we were standing. I’m sure its true, but it did smack of being a prepared line for the benefit of any tourist.
What was quite surprising was that although the guide emphasised the traditional way of life without electricity, central heating and wired phones when you pressed him, he admitted to living outside the Pueblo, in a house with all mod cons and television in Taos. This was a common theme with lots of the villagers and as a result, it’s a bit of a stage set.
After accumulating a whole rake of dogs around us on the way back to the car, (which those of you who know my wife well will appreciate what she thought of that!), we set of towards Abique, taking a road out of town which climbed up through the trees and then set off west through high meadows. The colours of the aspens were fantastic. There is nothing quite like the yellow of aspens when early or late sunlight shines through them; it’s a yellow which you buy in a shop and comes straight from the tube.
Through the day we were able to get a feel for the inspiration of the artists who have settled and worked here over the years; here for example, were O’Keeffe’s pastel shades and forms,... over there, were Strand’s strong shadows cast by the timbers off the adobes … and at times the sharp light caught the landscape in a style of Adams.
We passed O’Keefe’s ‘Black Place’. We also did a bit of exploring off road along a dry river bed to get to her ‘White Place’. Here was an opportunity for a leg stretch and a climb up to some balanced rocks across the hard baked silts. As we drove over the muds of the river, one or two places were slightly damp and it was easy to see that with only the very slightest of rainfalls, the place would have been like the Cresta Run.
The boys also scouted around the area which is clearly used by the locals as a shooting range. A few computer monitors sat on the bank having been blown to bits by bullets. Harry and Nick found used rounds plugged into the hard mud behind these targets.
We drove on to the Ghost Ranch which although having lots of associated landscapes around, had very little that was tangibly O’Keefe. Its now a conference centre and her house is privately owned and out of bounds. Overshadowing these last miles of our journey was the Pedernal mountain – flat –topped like a Dutchman’s cap and a feature in many of her works.
Back near Espanola we spent some time between mile markers 194 and 195 on Highway 84. Here according to an obscure website reference I found some months ago is the locations where Ansel Adams took his iconic image in 1941 entitled Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.
I had heard that the landowner whose back yard is over-looked in the photograph, is a bit iffy about the whole thing and had done nothing to encourage anyone to ponder the same view … in fact, a few days later, as I write this, I hear that he can be quite hostile to photographers seeking a similar image. Either way, I was keen to take a look at the vantage point for this image.
Its a strange one. The picture was a one-off, taken on impulse at what was described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Adams was returning to Santa Fe, New Mexico after a discouraging day of photography. From the highway he glanced left and "saw an extraordinary situation - an inevitable photograph!” He described “almost ditching the car and rushing to set up his 8 X 10" camera”.
Adams had a clear visualization of the image he wanted but could not find his exposure meter! The situation was desperate: the low sun was trailing the edge of clouds in the west, and shadow would soon dim the white crosses of the graveyard in the foreground and he was at a loss to guess the correct exposure .. the story goes that he suddenly realized that he knew the exposure for the moon and quickly took the shot.
This photograph has been analysed time and time again. Not only do we know precisely what equipment was used but we also know exactly when the exposure was made; Using data from a visit to the site, Dr. Elmore of the High Altitude Observatory at Boulder, Co analysed of the moon's position in the photograph, checked the lunar azimuth tables, he determined that the exposure was made at approximately 4:05 P.M. on October 31, 1941. Over the years, prints of the image … particularly those directly printed by Adams have sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
And so here we were … right opposite the San Jose church but struggling; we must have made three or four passes up and down the four lane highway trying to suss out the precise location and eventually we were able to pick out the graveyard, buried in vegetation and tucked away behind a couple of buildings.
The location, unremarkable at the time, is no more appealing now !! It has considerable scrub growth, development … and traffic. In the absence of the once-in-a-lifetime cloud effects and an emerging moon, there is little to entice one to shoot a frame.
Our route home, took the direct route back following the Rio Grande and offered us a sunset, just as we crested the rise a few miles out of Taos.
We stopped once again at the Ranchos church as we passed, in order to pay due homage and to take a few night-time pictures.
We then went on to a very dodgy grill in town called the Guadalajara, which certainly showed us what life in Taos is about; otherwise was a bit of a low point.
Back at the Abominable we all retired to our room to sink some beers and sort through the overwhelming quantity of photographs accumulated today on the computer. A good, fun evening in spite of the efforts of the Guadalajara.
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