Spring comes late to the southern Rocky Mountains, and thus I have an excuse to extend the time of seasonal cleaning until June.  Hey, it sounds good anyway.  

When photographers look through images and paperwork for projects (the archives, as it were) it is always an interesting process.  The opportunity to look at your body of work and see exactly how much you have done over the years is daunting.  You just keep using the tools of the trade, and mountains of photographs in different formats begin to form.  Thus, an occasional cleaning and weeding is a good thing.   I started taking photography semi-seriously during a hike in the Grand Canyon in 1968, but did not become a professional, officially, until selling my first images in 1977 to New Mexico Magazine.  Thus, there are a few years worth of material.

There are triggers in life that get your mind going in certain directions. Online graduation ceremonies from high schools, colleges, and military academies. A contact out of the blue from someone I had photographed. Searching the folders of photographs and information sheets of people in my book project, A Place Like No Other:  People of an Enchanted Land.  All of these things combined and evolved into today's blog. Sometimes, I wish I could have a do-over of some of the weddings I photographed and environmental portraits I shot.  But looking back, it was pleasing to find some jewels.  The ones included here were made with a Mamiya 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 format camera, using Ilford 400 film.

In pursuit of compelling faces and stories of people in New Mexico, I did a shoot in Albuquerque in 1997 of environmental educator, Hy Rosner.  His huge winning smile and approach to life made photographing him a joy.  I am not exactly sure why he was not included in the book, but page count was limited or Hy would certainly have been part of it.

Three young women at the New Mexico MIlitary Institute in Roswell, were great fun and willing subjects.  The photograph in my book is of the three of them together, but the individual photographs show just a little bit more of each personality.  I have no idea where any of them are now, or whether they followed military careers.  The first is Barbara Soto.

The next two photographs are of sisters Natalie and Felisa Lopez. 

David Cordova, who is now a realtor, comes from a long line of weavers from Truchas that I had photographed before Fred even started to weave.  He also did some acting, and was definitely not shy in front of a camera.

Your comments on last week's blog were so interesting and filled with the history of family members serving in WWII, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. Members of Dianne's family were in WWII, Vietnam, and the Gulf war, including her mother who was a "Rosey the Riveter" in World War II, Wayne's father was a medic in WWII, and Pauli's birth father was an Army Air Corps navigator killed in North Africa. 

So very much to remember, and I thank you.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@