Thursday, July 04, 2019

The Church of Ansel

We spent a couple days in Taos.  I've been there several times over the years we have lived in New Mexico, but I've never taken the time before to explore the place with my cameras.  I decided on this occasion that I would devote a chunk of time to one subject, the San Francisco de Asis church south of town.  Ansel Adams and Paul Strand immortalized the place early in the last century.  It seemed a nice opportunity to see what they saw and to develop some appreciation of how they approached the subject and how they interpreted it.


The first thing that struck me was that the church is a lot smaller than it appears in the pictures made by Adams and Strand.  They both used large format cameras that allowed them a lot of control over surface textures, depth of focus and perspective.  Their results may seem deceptive today, but it is also possible to argue that emphasizing a kind of monumentality in their portrayals was true to the impression people would have had of the structure when it was built two centuries ago.  My own pictures of the place were made with a relatively simple box camera with few controls, and partly for that reason they reflect a more contemporary and ephemeral view of the site.







I started taking pictures of the church at 6:00 AM when the sun was low and not yet too bright.  That favored the estimated focus, the two apertures, and the shutter that is limited to 1/25 or 1/50 sec. in the Vredeborch Felica box camera.


After I exposed the twelve frames available on the roll of 120 Fuji Acros rollfilm in the Felica I switched to shooting Arista Ultra Edu 100 in my Pentax ME, mostly using the 28mm f2.8 SMC Pentax M.  The final portion of the two hours I spent at the church were given over to shooting Kodak ColorPlus 200 in my Olympus Infinity Stylus.  It will be interesting to compare the results from those two cameras to what came from the Felica box.  Of course, the light later in the morning was very different, and there were some additional characters on the set including several cats and one devout parishioner.

Coincidentally, the day after we got home, the Albuquerque Art Museum offered a morning screening of the PBS biography of Ansel Adams made some years ago, I think.  It was worth watching, mostly because of the brilliant commentary by John Szarkowski.  Photographers watching the film will grit their teeth during the constant zooming and panning of Ansel's images by the cinematographers.

10 comments:

Jim Grey said...

How wonderful! I've seen paintings of this church but never a photograph. I can see why painters paint it and photographers photograph it; it's truly lovely, especially with the morning light play.

Mike said...

It is a place worth revisiting. This time of year, the sky and the light changes dramatically through the day.

Gerald said...

I absolutely love this church and the photos. Love the dreamlike quality that the Felica gives.

Mike said...

Thanks, Gerald. I was happy with the Felica's performance. I would like to try this subject with some of my other box cameras some time. They all see things in unique ways.

JR Smith said...

A place I so wanted to visit during one of my extended business trips to New Mexico, but never did. I would love to see some work from you at this site using your Mamiya TLR.

Mike said...

Lots of interesting things to see and photograph in and around Taos. We enjoyed walking around the Plaza, and we also drove out to the bridge over the Gorge. The Rio Grande is running high and fast.

Ian Ross said...

Mike, longtime reader, first-time commenter. Thinking about you last week since I was actually in New Mexico, including a trip to this very church to photograph! The day we were there it rained on and off, so I was disappointed by the shadows. But I think I've got a few keepers. Such a photogenic state though. Thanks for the post!

Mike said...

Hey, thanks for dropping in. We had some nice sun both mornings we were in Taos, but lot of clouds and showers all around later in the day. I would enjoy seeing your shots of the church. Let me know if you are posting them somewhere. I am the mod of the New Mexico Film Photographers Flickr group, so you are welcome to put any NM pictures there if you like.

Martin Cutrone said...

Beautiful images, love the ethereal quality of the box camera! How lucky to be able to visit!

Mike said...

Thanks, Martin. I do like the little Felica.