TexasGirl Photography

My first trip to Taos was in 2018, as part of our epic new adventure road trip. I remember us pulling in from some side road or another, and seeing a sign for an adobe church.

Him – “Do you want to check it out?”
Me – “Sure, why not, although I’m kinda done photographing churches for the day.”

This was probably the 10th one we had stopped at, it was getting on in the afternoon, and I was ready to just find camp and settle down. The light was bad on the front, and the back was “ugly,” so we drove on without my making a single image.

Yes, I declared the back of the one and only most famous, most photographed San Francisco de Asís to be ugly. To me, at the time, it just looked like a bunch of adobe blobs that obviously served an excellent structural / architectural purpose, but did little else.

It can’t have been much more than a month or so after we got home when I opened a book on Paul Strand and saw a photograph of that same backside. Images by Ansel Adams swiftly followed. I felt like an idiot! Who was I to pass judgement on something the Masters of my chosen art form found so fascinating? I did a little investigating, and everybody plus their dog with a go pro photographs the hind end of that church. Everybody, apparently, except me.

Clearly, I had some learning to do, in lots of ways.

The following year, 2019, our summer camping adventures focused on Colorado. Same story for 2020, since Colorado was open for visitors and New Mexico was not. All that time, I waited quietly hoping for another chance to redeem my own foolishness and get my own dang photos of this place so revered by every other camera on earth. (Hyperbole on purpose y’all)

THIS year, glorious – or not – 2021, we returned to New Mexico, and to Taos. This time, I knew what I was getting into. This time, we managed to walk around the lovely marketplace since it wasn’t pouring down with rain (it waited until I had photographed to my heart’s content, then let loose while we had chips and salsa and margaritas at some wonderful adobe cantina). This time, we stopped at St Francis TWICE!

The first time, I made the Polaroids you see above. There was a huge gorgeous wedding fixing to begin, so the parking lot was packed and there were loads of beautifully dressed people in the front courtyard. There was a mariachi band, and a spectacularly radiant bride.

The second time, we arrived in the morning on our way out of town. The church was open (!! this meant I not only got to look inside, but could also pray and light a candle. . . . I left a trail of candles behind us in New Mexico), and the light was magnificent. I met a friendly woman with an Instax mini out front, who thought she knew me from college (she didn’t).

In all humility, I present to you now the photographs I made that day. I present them not because I think they are anything special, but because they represent something significant for me in terms of my own journey.

All pleasant illuminating wishes for you, on your own journey!

All black and white images Hasselblad 500 cm and Kodak Tri-X.