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Sketches: Behind the Chutes

Last fall I attended several local rodeos here in New Mexico: the Casper Baca Roughstock Rodeo Fall Series and the Bosque Farms Rodeo Association Fall Rodeo. Both rodeos allowed me up-close access, for which I am grateful. This kind of access allowed for photographs beyond the action in the arena and a glimpse into the focus and preparation involved in rodeo competition.

Recently a short series of behind the scenes images from these rodeos were posted on my Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr feeds but were neglected here. This post rectifies that.

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A young cowboy awaits his 8 seconds on the steer. Bull riding is as much a mental game as it is a physical one.

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Bull and Rider

Bull Prep

A bull rider sits on a bull in the chutes leading to the bucking chute. A sense of familiarity appears to exist for both cowboy and bull.

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A cowboy awaits his ride. There is a lot of time spent waiting for the 8 seconds aboard a bull.

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A cowboy perhaps ponders what could have been after a Bosque Farms Rodeo Association Rodeo, Bosque Farms, New Mexico.

Posted by Brian Miller in Nuevo Mexico, Picture Package, rodeo, Sketches

El Dia De Los Politicos

Each year, at the end of October and beginning of November, many of the Mexican influenced communities in the world celebrate “El Dia de los Muertos” – the Day of the Dead. It is, traditionally, a time for remembering those deceased in one’s family and connecting to one’s heritage and ancestry. To familial based cultures this is especially important because identity is defined by one’s place on the land and in the family. Roles are clearly defined and expected. Tying oneself through memory and emotion to a departed relative helps remind a person of their role.

In New Mexico, in Albuquerque in particular, and in the South Valley of Albuquerque specifically, celebrating “El Dia de los Muertos” with the “Muertos y Marigolds Parade” has been an important part in maintaining Hispano/Chicano identity and pride in a country and state that has – in not too distant history – often subjugated Hispanic culture, traditions, and language.

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I’ve visited the parade often. Each year I would descend on Isleta Boulevard with my camera, full of anticipation and nervousness. The Calaveras and costumes were often fantastic, the floats inspired, and the display of South Valley Chicano culture full of pride and good cheer. For images from previous years please visit my posts on this site here, and here (2010) as well as here and here (2011).

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This year, as I thought about going yet again, I though about what to photograph. Was I satisfied with making more portrait images of people in great costumes? Was I interested in more shots of low-riders, floats, and face paint? I wasn’t.

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I’ve become much more interested lately in documenting New Mexico as it is. One of my favorite photographers, Larry Towell, wrote poetically that photographers, if we are not careful, run the risk of becoming “professional sharpshooters of exoticism….rather than contemplators of ‘things as they are’” [sic]

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And so I asked myself what was important about this parade. Why photograph this? Why is it worth showing? Why does it make a difference? What is it about? What IS this parade? Here? Now?

My friend Ray Ketcham suggested, just prior to my departure, that I pick one or two stories I see there –  one or two aspects of what this parade is about –  and try to photograph those.

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And so I took my time. I arrived at the staging area and left my camera in my bag. I waited, I watched. As scores of photographers buzzed about snapping away greedily at all the visual stimulus I asked myself, “what is here that you cannot yet see?” “Is there a theme that surprises you, excites you,…even offends you?”

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And slowly it began to reveal itself.

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More and more the parade looks less like an expression of Chicano culture, pride, or tradition and more a platform for the costumed expression of political views. From marriage equality to water rights, from stomping for GMO-free food to immigrant rights, I witnessed a greater number of non-Hispanic participants parade through this Hispanic neighborhood pushing their political beliefs through a cultural platform that honors the dead. I didn’t fail to be struck by the irony of the slow death that gentrification brings to traditional neighborhoods, and the cultural divide highlighted by the attempted cross-cultural participation.

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“GMO”

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“Mariachi Awakening”

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“El Amor Ilegal”

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“Amar”

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“No Love Is Illegal”

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“Diversity”

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“Sin Papeles/Sin Miedo”

Mostly the parade this year, while visually enticing, left me scratching my head…

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Along the parade route, while witnessing the costumes and revelry, I took particular notice of quiet people watching the parade and holding pictures. I approached and asked: “Can you tell me about the person in the pictures you are holding?” “This is my aunt,” would come the reply. “This is my brother.” “This is my grandfather….my father…my grandmother….my sister as a baby.”

They were holding the images of their dead. Each one memorialized in a photographic image; the last likenesses of beloved members of the family. I was struck by the quiet reservedness of the living. Some were in costume; some were not. Each was quiet. Their internal state seemed unmatched to the dancing, whirling, marching, singing, chanting, candy throwing parade participants. I wondered if they felt out of place. I wondered if they felt like the Dia de los Muertos was different than expected.

I chose not to make images of those people and their departed relatives. I would have liked to, but the mood was not right, and out of respect I thanked them for their time and moved on.

Posted by Brian Miller in Culture, Festivals, Fuji, Nuevo Mexico, Tierra Encantada, X100

In Memoriam

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It is Memorial Day here in the U.S. A day designated to the rememberance of those who have served in this country’s wars. It saddens me that so many men and women had to give their lives in defense of their country; and it saddens me that anyone has had to shorten their lives in this way, for any country. I think of all that has been lost due to these sacrifices: the potential works of art, the music, great leaders, visionaries, healers. Not just from those that died directly but also from those who could have been born to them. So on this day of rememberance, I think not just with thanks to those that have died, but also with a sadness that anyone has had to die, or kill, for a country, a thought, or a belief that necessitates killing another in order to uphold it. 

Posted by Brian Miller in Culture, Festivals, Fuji, Nuevo Mexico, Sketches, Tierra Encantada, X100

Sketches: Distress

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Liam realizes his brother has claimed the last piece of watermelon.

Posted by Brian Miller in Fuji, Sketches, sketches, Tierra Encantada, X100

Sketches: Slow Burn

Each year Autumn makes its slow burn to winter.

A wistful time.

A transitional time.

A time all of itself.

Each person’s Autumn has its own timbre,

its own scent.

A last breath.

Inevitable.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Fuji, Sketches, X100

When Comes the Rain

As you might imagine-with New Mexico being a desert and all-rain is scarce here. This year especially we received less than an inch during the first 6 months of the year.

Drought? Perhaps.

Desert life, mostly.

We are fascinated with rain here. We have drainage channels (Arroyo’s) that stand dry most of the time with associated folk tales warning of their dangers (La Llorona). We have levees, we have storm drains, we have firemen specifically trained in water rescue. In the desert.

For when comes the rain, it comes. Hard and fast and cold it comes turning the dry arroyos into raging torrents, flooding streets, and breathing life into this desert community.

In my young children’s lives rain is an oddity, and an opportunity.

The summer rains came the other day.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Fuji, Monochrome, Nuevo Mexico, Tierra Encantada, X100

Sketches: Lexus

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Posted by Brian Miller in Buddha, Culture, Sketches

Sketches: The Couple

 Some relationships are meant for a reason.

Some relationships are meant for a season.

And a few relationship – just a few – are meant for a lifetime.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Fuji, Nuevo Mexico, X100

Sketches: Moments

Moments gained. Moments lost.

A look. A gaze. A pause. A burst of energy.

Life comes in stops and starts, flits.

A breath, an exhale, a sigh. A smile. A frown.

And the world turns around.

Don’t blink. Here. Gone.

Moments gained. Moments past.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Buddha, Fuji, Sketches, X100
Sketches: Lookout-Your Pictures Are Getting Dark

Sketches: Lookout-Your Pictures Are Getting Dark

I guess my wife is paying attention. The title above is something she said to me recently. I guess she noticed.

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I have been playing with tones recently. I started last year as I decided to take a step backward regarding gear and emulate some of the old-school photographers working with what would today be considered outrageous restrictions – Kodachrome at ISO 50, in a darkened room, or at the edges of the day, without a tripod, or a monopod.

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Think about it, these photogs shot with stuff you and I spend lots of money to get away from, and they made iconic photographs.

Damn, they were (or are) good.

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So I grabbed my D80 and one lens last fall and committed to it. As others upped their sensor size and crazy-high-iso-capability-I-can-shoot-in-the-dark cameras I went the other way (story of my life, my parents tell me.) I grabbed a camera with an ISO rating that shouldn’t be legally rated above 400 and went at it. Man that was hard.

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It was hard because out of the camera my files were not going to compare in quality to what others were shooting. Because I was going to miss and flub a lot of shots – and I did.

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But I learned something. Those limits pushed me to look, to search, to seek, to struggle around the edges of things, and to learn to trust my eye and my brain rather than the light meter in camera. I don’t think I shot anything “properly exposed” according to the camera. It was a lot of “half a stop over” or “1.3 stops under” or even “3 stops under” My images began to look like what I wanted them to look, not what the scene actually looked like in front of me.

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And that is when I started creating images. Took me some years to get here.

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And now maybe a new camera….

Posted by Brian Miller in "Aha!" Moments, Creativity, Photographic Mindset, Sketches