Taos Pueblo Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

This is the cemetery at the Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico and the background, the Old San Geronimo Church. The tower in the background was part of the original church built in 1619, which was destroyed in 1680, rebuilt in 1706, and finally destroyed during the Mexican American War. It has since been a cemetery which is now filled. Taos Indians are buried according to their traditional religious practice, with the addition of a Christian cross.

Near the ruins of the old church is a pile of these crosses. We were told that when one of the crosses falls down, it is not fixed but rather removed. The concrete tombstones seen amungst the wooden crosses indicate those that were in the military.

I will post pictures of the rebuilt chapel in a few days.

delic, crhieatt, rushfan2112, arturo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

delic (6735) 2007-07-23 11:59

Hello Amber,
Really good composition and colors. Sky could be cropped a bit perhaps. I'm suprised you could take this photo. They usually don't allow photography of cemeteries in NM pueblos (not that I haven't snapped a few myself but Taos is the stringent of them all with their tribal police). Well done. Best wishes,
Hakan

crhieatt (5143) 2007-07-23 15:13

Nice shot Amber - something more fundamentally honest and real about these higgeldy-piggeldy crosses - versus those that cost a few thousand dollars!

I nearly visited this place recently. We were just about to enter - whilst I was bemoaning the idea of paying money to carry in a camera - and a sudden huge storm blew up over the mountains with truly ferious winds turning the whole place into a wild dust bowl. My partner decided it was just too wild to go in - it was pretty wild! By then, of course, I was getting more enthusiastic with the prospect of, at least, photographing other tourists being pelted by a large storm. On the whole, retreat seemed the better option though!
Regards
Colin

jmcl (13721) 2007-07-27 16:18

Hi Amber,

Well spotted image .. the field of simple crosses so densely spaced is incredibly evocative .. well done.

take care,

John

Bluejeans (32083) 2007-08-02 10:30

Ola Amber interessante este velho cemitério com cruzes de madeira, gostei das cores e de ver as ruinas da velha igreja .
Parabens!!!
Um abraço Gonçalo

rushfan2112 (2965) 2007-09-04 12:32

A very scenic but very tocuhing photo. Extremely well handled (colour, contrast, sharpness), the composition is also excellent - the church breaks the horizon nicely.
TFS. Regards, Paul.

testmaniac (12072) 2007-09-26 0:20

Hello Amber, nice photo and interesting place!
I make more dramatic mode. See it!

TFS

Philip

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arturo (31) 2007-10-02 0:15

Hi Amber,

strange...although the grass is fairly green this image still reminds me of a scene from "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" movie...with Tuco running through the cemetary...cheers, arturo