“Images . . . address features unique to New Mexico that range from Hispanic and Native American cultural events to the nuclear weapons industry, and from environmental issues . . . to the state’s gay and lesbian population.”

“Photography New Mexico”

New coffee table book shows dichotomies that make up the state’s beauty

by Betsy Model

ured by her exceptional beauty, it is no surprise that New Mexico draws in artists, writers and photographers. There is something in the state’s wildness — its history, its myriad cultures, its open skies and red dirt roads — that has, for generations, called to those who feel a need to capture on canvas, paper or film what it is about New Mexico that captivates their hearts and imaginations.

A recently released report by the National Endowment of the Arts titled “Artists in the Workforce” shows Santa Fe as having, second only to San Francisco, the highest per-capita population of artists in the country. Over the last century, photographers as revered as Edward Weston, Edward Curtis, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams have found extraordinary beauty in New Mexico and captured for eternity the images that, both consistent and contradictory, represented their experience of the New Mexico landscape and peoples.

And, as a mid-September book release from Fresco Fine Art and the University of New Mexico Press titled “Photography New Mexico” (284 pages; $95 cloth with case) points out, there is much about the Land of Enchantment that is contradictory. New Mexico is the fifth largest state in land area, yet has one of the smallest populations. It is a state that boasts a large Catholic population and a tolerance of alternative lifestyles and, albeit being classified as one of the poorest states in the country, boasts not only a balanced state budget but a county, Los Alamos, that is the fifth wealthiest in median household income in the country.

These dichotomies are part of what “Photography New Mexico,” under the guidance of Thomas F. Barrow, professor emeritus of photography at the University of New Mexico, brings forth in the oversized coffee-table collection of images and essays.

The book features 25 photographers (all but one of them former or current New Mexico residents, the other a resident of the Four Corners region) and 200 images that depict the unique geographic and socio-cultural qualities that contribute to New Mexico’s status in American photography. Images — some of them straight photography; some of them collages or multimedia pieces that include photographic representations — address features unique to New Mexico that range from Hispanic and Native American cultural events to the nuclear weapons industry, and from environmental issues that affect the New Mexican landscape to the state’s gay and lesbian population.

Barrow chose the 200 images featured in the book, and — together with Stuart Ashman, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and Kristin Barendsen, a Santa Fe-based writer and art critic — showcases the images and the photographers’ backgrounds with an eye to the state’s unique and complex identity.

“Before selecting the work for this book, I tried to reflect [on] how New Mexico’s unique aggregate of geographic and socio-cultural attributes has manifested in recent photographic production,” Barrow explains.

“[Featured photographers] Patrick Nagatani, Meridel Rubenstein and Greg MacGregor address our nuclear weapons industry. Other artists, such as [Miguel] Gandert, Delilah Montoya and Victor Masayesva, Jr., bring out aspects of New Mexico’s unique mix of Hispanic and Native American cultures. Several of the landscape photographers focus on the environmental issues of our time: David Ondrick documents the effects of drought on the Rio Grande, while Ed Ranney photographs Pueblo ruins in an area threatened by oil drilling.”

Almost all of the photographers included in the book have images in permanent museum or gallery collections or have been prominently featured in gallery showings. Albuquerque-based Barrow, who has eight of his own mixed-media pieces included in the book, has work in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and the George Eastman House.

Santa Fe-based photographer Jo Whaley also has eight pieces in “Photography New Mexico” and, using skills that are nothing short of professional set design, has created complex and vibrant dioramas that are reminiscent of fine still-life paintings. Describing one series that she’s done, Natura Morta — Italian for “still life” but, as Whaley points out, also has a literal meaning of “dead nature” — Whaley creates visually beautiful images that slyly point out that not everything we create is sustainable and that the environment as we know it is decaying. In describing the message behind some of her images, Whaley remarks, “All of this luxury that we enjoy is at the expense of an uncertain future and questionable sustainability. But for now, the face of luxury is beautiful.”

Herb Lotz, who relocated to Santa Fe in 1970 after serving in Vietnam, studied photography at Chicago’s Art Institute before being drafted into combat. He began shooting portraits of his fellow soldiers and used his camera, he explains, “…to find some level of safety — or a reason to be, in some way. To document that I was still alive.”

Lotz, recognized primarily for his portraiture skills, sees portraits as a way to capture the human essence. Or, as he explains it in the book, “The same thing dwells inside all of us. That’s what I’m trying to capture.” In the eight images of gay men that are included in “Photography New Mexico,” Lotz has captured both single men and couples who, during the ’70s, were shaken by the AIDS epidemic.

Barrow, 70, admits that choosing the images and even the photographers from among New Mexico’s vast collection of artists was difficult. “I wanted to get people who, I would say, have ‘stayed the course’ and who have long careers in photography. It was about the work that I’d seen over time and their exhibition records, although there are also one or two people who are hardly known but who I think warranted the inclusion. I also wanted to demonstrate the extraordinary eclecticism of photography out here. There’s no particular New Mexico ‘look’ but overall you can also say that this work doesn’t look like anywhere else! There’s an enormous range of ideas and directions. I’ve lived out here 36 years and it really astounds me what’s going on here [in New Mexico.] There’s an amazing collection of photographers here who are doing things unlike anywhere else in the world.”




		Table of Contents \| Home


“Images . . . address features unique to New Mexico that range from Hispanic and Native American cultural events to the nuclear weapons industry, and from environmental issues . . . to the state’s gay and lesbian population.” “Photography New Mexico” New coffee table book shows dichotomies that make up the state’s beauty by Betsy Model ured by her exceptional beauty, it is no surprise that New Mexico draws in artists, writers and photographers. There is something in the state’s wildness — its history, its myriad cultures, its open skies and red dirt roads — that has, for generations, called to those who feel a need to capture on canvas, paper or film what it is about New Mexico that captivates their hearts and imaginations. A recently released report by the National Endowment of the Arts titled “Artists in the Workforce” shows Santa Fe as having, second only to San Francisco, the highest per-capita population of artists in the country. Over the last century, photographers as revered as Edward Weston, Edward Curtis, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams have found extraordinary beauty in New Mexico and captured for eternity the images that, both consistent and contradictory, represented their experience of the New Mexico landscape and peoples. And, as a mid-September book release from Fresco Fine Art and the University of New Mexico Press titled “Photography New Mexico” (284 pages; $95 cloth with case) points out, there is much about the Land of Enchantment that is contradictory. New Mexico is the fifth largest state in land area, yet has one of the smallest populations. It is a state that boasts a large Catholic population and a tolerance of alternative lifestyles and, albeit being classified as one of the poorest states in the country, boasts not only a balanced state budget but a county, Los Alamos, that is the fifth wealthiest in median household income in the country. These dichotomies are part of what “Photography New Mexico,” under the guidance of Thomas F. Barrow, professor emeritus of photography at the University of New Mexico, brings forth in the oversized coffee-table collection of images and essays. The book features 25 photographers (all but one of them former or current New Mexico residents, the other a resident of the Four Corners region) and 200 images that depict the unique geographic and socio-cultural qualities that contribute to New Mexico’s status in American photography. Images — some of them straight photography; some of them collages or multimedia pieces that include photographic representations — address features unique to New Mexico that range from Hispanic and Native American cultural events to the nuclear weapons industry, and from environmental issues that affect the New Mexican landscape to the state’s gay and lesbian population. Barrow chose the 200 images featured in the book, and — together with Stuart Ashman, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and Kristin Barendsen, a Santa Fe-based writer and art critic — showcases the images and the photographers’ backgrounds with an eye to the state’s unique and complex identity. “Before selecting the work for this book, I tried to reflect [on] how New Mexico’s unique aggregate of geographic and socio-cultural attributes has manifested in recent photographic production,” Barrow explains. “[Featured photographers] Patrick Nagatani, Meridel Rubenstein and Greg MacGregor address our nuclear weapons industry. Other artists, such as [Miguel] Gandert, Delilah Montoya and Victor Masayesva, Jr., bring out aspects of New Mexico’s unique mix of Hispanic and Native American cultures. Several of the landscape photographers focus on the environmental issues of our time: David Ondrick documents the effects of drought on the Rio Grande, while Ed Ranney photographs Pueblo ruins in an area threatened by oil drilling.” Almost all of the photographers included in the book have images in permanent museum or gallery collections or have been prominently featured in gallery showings. Albuquerque-based Barrow, who has eight of his own mixed-media pieces included in the book, has work in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and the George Eastman House. Santa Fe-based photographer Jo Whaley also has eight pieces in “Photography New Mexico” and, using skills that are nothing short of professional set design, has created complex and vibrant dioramas that are reminiscent of fine still-life paintings. Describing one series that she’s done, Natura Morta — Italian for “still life” but, as Whaley points out, also has a literal meaning of “dead nature” — Whaley creates visually beautiful images that slyly point out that not everything we create is sustainable and that the environment as we know it is decaying. In describing the message behind some of her images, Whaley remarks, “All of this luxury that we enjoy is at the expense of an uncertain future and questionable sustainability. But for now, the face of luxury is beautiful.” Herb Lotz, who relocated to Santa Fe in 1970 after serving in Vietnam, studied photography at Chicago’s Art Institute before being drafted into combat. He began shooting portraits of his fellow soldiers and used his camera, he explains, “…to find some level of safety — or a reason to be, in some way. To document that I was still alive.” Lotz, recognized primarily for his portraiture skills, sees portraits as a way to capture the human essence. Or, as he explains it in the book, “The same thing dwells inside all of us. That’s what I’m trying to capture.” In the eight images of gay men that are included in “Photography New Mexico,” Lotz has captured both single men and couples who, during the ’70s, were shaken by the AIDS epidemic. Barrow, 70, admits that choosing the images and even the photographers from among New Mexico’s vast collection of artists was difficult. “I wanted to get people who, I would say, have ‘stayed the course’ and who have long careers in photography. It was about the work that I’d seen over time and their exhibition records, although there are also one or two people who are hardly known but who I think warranted the inclusion. I also wanted to demonstrate the extraordinary eclecticism of photography out here. There’s no particular New Mexico ‘look’ but overall you can also say that this work doesn’t look like anywhere else! There’s an enormous range of ideas and directions. I’ve lived out here 36 years and it really astounds me what’s going on here [in New Mexico.] There’s an amazing collection of photographers here who are doing things unlike anywhere else in the world.”

	This image is called "Wimkyati (Initiation)". It's an Ilfochrome color print taken in 1996 by Victor Masayesva, Jr.



	"Spheres of Influence" is a chromogenic print by Jo Whaley from 1992.