It's my 3rd time here, and the first time I've been here with my 4 x 5 camera and much better skills at making pictures. It is stunning here---an extremely wide and vibrant color spectrum, tiny humble homes set against massive, impassive mesas and mountains, and a moon that doesn't disappear until late in the afternoon. Made some pictures in White Sands, Raptor Lake, and along Route 3 in the middle of some rolling hills dotted with farms and yucca and trees, the leaves a pale golden green in the sparkling autumnal sun. It was pretty awesome.
Now in Santa Fe.
Saw a really lovely photography show at the Monroe Gallery of the work of Stephen Wilkes, another photographer who has been investigating the rapidly changing environment of China.
The image I found most enigmatic in the show was this:
Farm house before demolition, China, 2006, Stephen Wilkes
This photograph was exhibited as a diptych with a matching image, the farmhouse just now a pile of rubble. While I have certainly seen plenty of before/ after destructions depicted in photography, the strange, ethereal lighting and overcast, yet shimmering sky really contributed to the overall feeling of: is this really happening?
