New Mexico Sacred Places poster

[Kirk Gittings]

Over the years, some of the most satisfying work I do is for historic preservation. Sometimes this is in the form of documenting threatened structures, sometimes a HABS report (Historic American Building Survey) and sometimes it is simply contributing my work to benefit historic preservation organizations and projects. In this situation it is the annual poster for New Mexico Historic Preservation Month of the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Division, Office of Cultural Affairs. The image they selected for the Sacred Places theme is of the Upper Morada in Abiquiu, just up the hill from Georgia O'Keefe's house. The image is: "The Way of the Cross", Upper Morada, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1988. This was printed with a very strong duotone colorization from a monotone print file, designed by Tom Drake.

I will be signing these at the Heritage Preservation Awards Ceremony this Saturday at the Santa Fe Convention Center 2-5pm.

[attachment=13317:2009_poster_web.jpg]

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Congratulations, Kirk!

(And, by the way, your photo is much better than the one I took there last year. I wish i could have waited for some nice clouds.)

That is a very moving location, and your image conveys it very well.

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks Eric, I appreciate that. BTW I love your "Road Tar" series.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Thanks Eric, I appreciate that. BTW I love your "Road Tar" series.

Thank you, Kirk!

[wolfnowl]

Congrats indeed!  Nice work, too!

Mike.

[RSL]

Over the years, some of the most satisfying work I do is for historic preservation. Sometimes this is in the form of documenting threatened structures, sometimes a HABS report (Historic American Building Survey) and sometimes it is simply contributing my work to benefit historic preservation organizations and projects. In this situation it is the annual poster for New Mexico Historic Preservation Month of the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Division, Office of Cultural Affairs. The image they selected for the Sacred Places theme is of the Upper Morada in Abiquiu, just up the hill from Georgia O'Keefe's house. The image is: "The Way of the Cross", Upper Morada, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1988. This was printed with a very strong duotone colorization from a monotone print file, designed by Tom Drake.

I will be signing these at the Heritage Preservation Awards Ceremony this Saturday at the Santa Fe Convention Center 2-5pm.

[attachment=13317:2009_poster_web.jpg]

Kirk, Splendid stuff. Anyone ever figure out why they put that damn gas meter on the side of the church at Ranches de Taos? I, along with millions of others, have pictures of that church going back to the early sixties. It never ceases to amaze me that they did that. It's hardly what I'd call historic preservation.

[Kirk Gittings]

Kirk, Splendid stuff. Anyone ever figure out why they put that damn gas meter on the side of the church at Ranches de Taos? I, along with millions of others, have pictures of that church going back to the early sixties. It never ceases to amaze me that they did that. It's hardly what I'd call historic preservation.

FWIW, I used to be a member of a committee for historic preservation with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The Taos church was within our jurisdiction. As the church restoration and maintenance is done by local volunteers with donations, the committee was not likely to intervene unless something unsafe was being done. The locals prioity was always very pragmatic. I felt like I was the sole person concerned with aesthetics (for obvious reasons) and frankly aesthetics were a very low priority for the committee as a whole considering the magnitude of the structural issues etc. A few classic churches collapsed in the 70's and 80's. There were some 800 historic churches in the A of Santa Fe and resources were very low and spread very thin.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Kirk, Splendid stuff. Anyone ever figure out why they put that damn gas meter on the side of the church at Ranches de Taos? I, along with millions of others, have pictures of that church going back to the early sixties. It never ceases to amaze me that they did that. It's hardly what I'd call historic preservation.

That's one good use of the PS clone tool --- to get rid of inappropriately placed gas meters.

[RSL]

That's one good use of the PS clone tool --- to get rid of inappropriately placed gas meters.

True, and I've done that several times with that bloody gas meter, but Saint Francis of Assisi, at Rancho de Taos is one of the most photographed churches in the world -- especially after Ansel Adams did his stunning shot of the place. In 1929 he shot the face of the church that now sports the gas meter, but from a position a bit to the northwest. In that shot it's hard to tell whether or not the meter was there, but to think it was in 1929 is absurd. It seems to me I remember a second shot he made from straight-on that shows the area of the side where the meter is now, but I can't find it.

Here's a straight-on of the north end of the church -- cropping out the gas meter, which is out of sight to the right. This is just as the picture came off the camera. Note the stupid telephone line that crosses it. That's just the lower one. There's a second line higher up -- outside the picture. If you look at Ansel's 1929 shot you can see how beautiful this building was before it was vandalized.

[attachment=13331:DSCN0693.jpg]

[Kirk Gittings]

I wouldn't call it vandalized. It was simple pragmatism. The gas line runs straight from the street to that wall. The west buttress would have been the absolute nearest point but the wall at the base of the buttress is like 10' thick. So the next closest is the wall to either side of the west buttress. The buttress itself was not built for aesthetic purposes. It was simply to keep the back of the church from collapsing. To them it solved a problem. To us the buttress is pure sculpture. Pragmatic architecture is sometimes exquisitely simple and beautiful like the buttress and sometimes it is awful like the gas meter. The beauty of the back of the building is our preoccupation. Their preoccupation is the structural integrity of the church. Who has the higher purpose?

True, and I've done that several times with that bloody gas meter, but Saint Francis of Assisi, at Rancho de Taos is one of the most photographed churches in the world -- especially after Ansel Adams did his stunning shot of the place. In 1929 he shot the face of the church that now sports the gas meter, but from a position a bit to the northwest. In that shot it's hard to tell whether or not the meter was there, but to think it was in 1929 is absurd. It seems to me I remember a second shot he made from straight-on that shows the area of the side where the meter is now, but I can't find it.

Here's a straight-on of the north end of the church -- cropping out the gas meter, which is out of sight to the right. This is just as the picture came off the camera. Note the stupid telephone line that crosses it. That's just the lower one. There's a second line higher up -- outside the picture. If you look at Ansel's 1929 shot you can see how beautiful this building was before it was vandalized.

[attachment=13331:DSCN0693.jpg]

[RSL]

I wouldn't call it vandalized. It was simple pragmatism. The gas line runs straight from the street to that wall. The west buttress would have been the absolute nearest point but the wall at the base of the buttress is like 10' thick. So the next closest is the wall to either side of the west buttress. The buttress itself was not built for aesthetic purposes. It was simply to keep the back of the church from collapsing. To them it solved a problem. To us the buttress is pure sculpture. Pragmatic architecture is sometimes exquisitely simple and beautiful like the buttress and sometimes it is awful like the gas meter. The beauty of the back of the building is our preoccupation. Their preoccupation is the structural integrity of the church. Who has the higher purpose?

Kirk,

It's a point well taken. I've stopping by Ranchos de Taos at least one or twice a year since the late fifties and I understand that the parish is a long way from wealthy. (See the attached picture of commercial property on the edge of the churchyard.) But I'm also familiar with the galleries in Taos, used to know some of the people who sold art out of the town, and, for some time have had a hard time understanding why the whole Taos area, as a community, didn't help with the gas line project and find a way to bury the phone lines. But it's not my community, so I can't really complain, and I'd hate to see a government project that would force taxpayers in, say, New Hampshire to pay for the gas line.

I wonder if the French would complain if Notre Dame parishioners decided to put a gas meter on the front of the cathedral, provided that location was the shortest practical run from the street.

[attachment=13332:Commerci...Property.jpg]

[Kirk Gittings]

If you think a gas meter is bad your should see the site of Ansel Adams' "Moonrise over Hernandez". IMO this view should be a national monument, yet it is totally trashed.

[RSL]

If you think a gas meter is bad your should see the site of Ansel Adams' "Moonrise over Hernandez". IMO this view should be a national monument, yet it is totally trashed.

Kirk, That's a tragic thought. I haven't gone looking for that vista and I guess I won't. I'd rather remember it the way Ansel saw it. I agree. That whole part of the country ought to be a national monument.