A couple of Catron County cowboys horse around during the annual Pie Town Festival in Pie Town, New Mexico
31
Oct
2012
Nuevo Mexico
17
Oct
2012
Sketches: Native Cowboy
A young Indian cowboy sits alone and brooding high in the stands at the International Indian Finals Rodeo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 2012.
The contestants wait all evening for the shot at glory. Whether it be a barrel race lasting nearly a minute, a team calf roping event lasting half a minute, or the eternity that 8 seconds can seem on the back of a raging bull, they have one chance in the evening to pull off a great ride or to suffer abject defeat and possible injury.
I don’t know what led this young cowpoke to brood so: a poor ride; a father’s scolding; the mocking of friends. But it was clear he needed to be with his own thoughts for a while.
The International Indian Finals Rodeo drew competitors from Calgary, from Hopi, from Mescalero Apache, from Navajo and from many in between, with each competitor carrying the pride of their tribe on their shoulders. In addition, they carried the pride of Native, First Nation’s People.
There were not many spectators. A few curious attendees, but mostly the sense was that the stands were populated with the competitors’ family members. But I tell you, the competitors were as good as they come.
10
Oct
2012
Sketches: Consternation
03
Oct
2012
Sketches: Beaverbones
19
Sep
2012
Sketches: Cow Young Men
12
Sep
2012
Sketches: Leaner
I went to Pie Town, New Mexico this past weekend along with Dan Milnor from Smogranch, Charlene Winfred from Perth, Australia, and Flemming Bo Jensen from Denmark for the Pie Festival. The town is a stone’s throw from my late father-in-laws ranch and I’d been there many times before, to have pie and to have lunch. This time the annual Pie Town Festival was going on complete with pie eating contest, pie queen, horseshoe competition and all sorts of good family fun.
I also briefly met Arthur Drooker through Dan, who has been remaking the Farm Security Administration portfolio that Russell Lee made back in the depression. He calls it Pie Town Revisited. Really cool stuff. If you happen to be driving through Pie Town (!) the photographs are on display in the Pie-O-Neer cafe on the north side of the road. Worth a visit.
Personally, I prefer the Good Pie Cafe on the south side of the road where I found the fellows in the picture. I especially like their chocolate pie. My son likes the milkshakes.
29
Aug
2012
Sketches: Say Cheese
21
May
2012
It’s not for me to know…
“It’s not for me to know; it’s for me to find out (discover).” This thought is what came to me as I browsed through some William Albert Allard images on the National Geographic site online. Allard, a 50 year contributor to the Geographic, is known for his incredible use of color as a compositional tool as well as his intimate stories in light other photographers wouldn’t choose to use.
What struck me as I looked at his images is how close he gets to his subjects. I’m not talking about positional distance, although he does that too. I mean how intimate the images become. It is as if he captures that essence of a moment that shows the subjects in all their three dimensional human depth. It is as if he manages to make an image from inside the subject’s defenses, from beyond the mask.
And even more, what Allard manages to capture in these images is not only the subject, but a piece of himself. And in doing so he captures a piece of me. Repeatedly I’ve found myself looking at an image thinking, “I know that feeling!” There is a piece of me in those images, and I imagine there is a piece of Allard, and of you too. That is good photography!
So why do I share all this? Well, I try to be better and better at photographing. I’m trying to learn what makes a good image and I’m trying to learn how to do it myself. A friend of mine suggested not too subtly that I not collect my own work but rather collect the good works of others. He suggested this mostly to spur along my artistic efforts, I know. And he has succeeded. So, I’ve been perusing the works of others including Allard, Steve McCurry, Larry Towell, Martin Parr, Yousuf Karsh and others. and I keep asking myself, “how did/do they do that?”
That question is not about the technical aspect of an image; I can figure that part out. It’s about the access; it’s about the edit; it’s about the moment; it’s about the intimacy; it’s about recognizing what matters out of all the uncontrollable chaos that exists in the world swirling around us all the time. And I realize, it is not for me to know by looking at others’ work; it is for me to discover – in the world, in front of my camera, in my images. These photographers managed to capture the images they did because they went seeking that intimacy. They let themselves become known and they let themselves discover others.
They got close, really close, and found that reflection of themselves in others and made an image of that. So, the question then arises, is how do I find that reflection of myself in my subjects, in the world? And show it?
06
Mar
2012
Bosque del Apache, Part 2
In my previous post I showed a quick series about the Geese and Sand Hill cranes at Bosque del Apache, a National Wildlife Refuge about an hour south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s a photographer magnet.
We had found a field full of birds, out of which came the images in the previous post, but soon they decided to move on to their nighttime location.
We decided jump ahead of the birds to go to an area known as “The Flight Deck.”
The “Flight Deck” is an observation station placed in the flooded fields at a favorite resting spot for the birds. Word has it that thousand of birds usually spend the night here…as well as several zealous photographers. This time the birds landed at a neighboring field without a deck. They tend to do that if there are predators nearby. So all that was left was a gaggle of photographers with impossibly large lenses, the water, and the sunset.
19
Feb
2012
Bosque del Apache, Part 1
Not far from Albuquerque, where I live, is a National Wildlife Refuge with a name that harkens back to another time and another people: Bosque del Apache. Each year thousands upon thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Canadian Snow Geese, as well as numerous Bald Eagles, make this land their winter home. It is a special place in this enchanted land that attracts wildlife and amateur photographers from around the world. Curiously, a majority of New Mexicans never visit.
The first sign we were coming close (other than the new welcome station and rustic pay station) was actually a sound-a distant call of a goose high overhead, similar to a foghorn but shorter in duration. Soon enough, a squadron of Snow Geese emerge out of the late afternoon sun, high enough to touch the clouds.
Sign of the birds exists underfoot as well as millions upon millions of footprints crisscross themselves over every inch of land that allows their imprint.
Before long the squadron leads us to a landing strip-a farmer’s field. Word has it the farmers in the area support the winter migration by providing food for the birds.
But this is just an intermediary stop; a last stop to catch a breath before heading to their nighttime lodgings and the geese arrive and depart seemingly of one mind in a cacophony of sound. (click on the play button bellow to get a sense of the continual sound that occurs with these birds. For a full experience, let the audio play as you view the following images. Feel free to click on the images for a Lightbox-type viewing experience.)
Snow Geese Cacophony by Brian Miller
As the sun dips the birds begin their last flight of the day and head toward their sleeping grounds…