...Santa Fe and New Mexico...

Ah, nostalgia. All these wonderful photos (especially so those by Vince Lupo, also many others) give me an almost unbearable longing to go back to my younger days in New Mex, but at my age (over 70, in fact pushing 75) I'm now more limited in mobility than I was, and it's likely I will never get back, at least not in this life...

I was born in Canada but moved to NM in the late '60s when my biological mother remarried and invited me to spend time with her and her new partner, out of Silver City. An amazing time full of unexpected discoveries. I often drove myself up to Pinos Altos and explored the Gila cave dwellings and the deserted mining towns and sites that are all over the place in those southern hills. Views of the Rio Grande valley. Discovered the local version of Tex-Mex cuisine. And in all ways, flourished.

Life took be back to Canada but I returned in the early '70s for a 10-month stay in Santa Fe. Trips back in 1979, for two months, and 1982, more briefly this last time but just as evocative.

In 1979 I was offered a part-time post in education, to do course preparations and research but with a fair amount of time for my own projects. At that time I was full of ideas about writing books on just about everything, and the idea appealed, the salary was modest (more than enough for my needs, even photography as secondhand cameras, film and darkroom stuff cost very little back then) and I was earning much more in Australia - also I had a strong relationship with an Aussie in Sydney and the pull of emotions proved too strong, so I decided no and returned to 'Down Under' at the end of that year. I have long wondered in which directions life would have taken me, had I opted to stay in NM and take that position. Now I'll never know.

I must find my surviving negatives and slides and go on reliving my happy times, when I was young and life felt endless and the world seemed full of possibilities.

Thank you all for having posted so many scenes I remember from my time there. It has let me relive so many adventures in my past life.
 
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A few more thoughts I did want to include in my previous post, but it got too long, and my brain wandered a bit, as it tends to do nowadays.

Santa Fe was an amazing town in the '70s. Also Taos. I saw Georgia O'Keeffe out shopping and one time dining out with friends, including one I knew, but in the latter case I was too shy to go up and ask to be introduced. In 1979 I drove myself up to her home in, I think, Abiquiu, and stood at the gate of her hacienda until one of her dogs came out and aggressively barked at me. So that was the closest I got to that great lady.

SF had many local artists and many colourful characters around the city in those days. Now all gone, I reckon. Taos too. I drove myself several times up to the DH Lawrence cottage for 'meditative' moments and a lot of photography. On one occasion friends took me to meet Dorothy Brett at her studio and she kindly made drinks (not exactly a tea party, as I recall we had super strong pina coladas), but by then she was very old and as deaf as a wooden post and didn't take too kindly to newcomers, at that age I was expecting some great moments which didn't happen, so for me it was a mixed-emotion event. I do recall she had two small dogs who took a dislike to me and wanted to go for my ankles. Me and dogs never quite got along. Cats, yes.

NM opened entirely new dimensions in my life. As others have written, the light in that state is something to be seen to be believed. Australia has similar, but nothing like that I saw in the vast empty spaces of the southwestern part of the state. Crystal-clear views up to 20 miles, standing on a high hill in Pines Altos with my two Nikkormats, looking to the northeast, watching the spinifex rolling in the winds and not a car or a human being in site for all that distance.

I could go on and on, but then so many others who've posted gorgeous images here have similar experiences and feelings. I've said enough, I think.
 
Well, we're close in age, and although life certainly no longer feels endless, I think it can still be full of possibilities!
You were in NM during the best of times; development and gentrification have taken their toll, but it's still a wonderful, strange place. I've been here twelve years, and finally feel at home, if not like a native. Still working on it, and now I can knock down green chile with the best of 'em!
It's interesting that you connected so strongly with NM. I've never been to Australia, but have known a good many people from there, nearly all of them possessed of a straightforwardness and good humor that I found very attractive. I found that same quality in New Mexicans, and my theory is that both places share a residual frontier mentality, born of a wide open, harsh terrain and a need to depend on each other regardless of differences. As well, our Indigenous Peoples are a very present and significant element of our culture here, as they are in Australia. And let's not forget: Australia was fortunate enough to be settled by convicts and other rapscallions. America got the Puritans, but our misfits and ne'er-do-wells headed west and became cowboys. In New Mexico!
Sadly, we are presently in the midst of one of the worst fire seasons anyone can remember, fueled by a prolonged severe drought and a quicky heating planet. From my desk, I can look out my window and see a massive plume of smoke from a wildfire near Los Alamos, 50 miles away, and that's not the biggest one burning. Skies are brown throughout the state, and many people have been evacuated or are living in fear of that happening.
We'll pull through; we're a tough bunch!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Well, we're close in age, and although life certainly no longer feels endless, I think it can still be full of possibilities!
You were in NM during the best of times; development and gentrification have taken their toll, but it's still a wonderful, strange place. I've been here twelve years, and finally feel at home, if not like a native. Still working on it, and now I can knock down green chile with the best of 'em!
It's interesting that you connected so strongly with NM. I've never been to Australia, but have known a good many people from there, nearly all of them possessed of a straightforwardness and good humor that I found very attractive. I found that same quality in New Mexicans, and my theory is that both places share a residual frontier mentality, born of a wide open, harsh terrain and a need to depend on each other regardless of differences. As well, our Indigenous Peoples are a very present and significant element of our culture here, as they are in Australia. And let's not forget: Australia was fortunate enough to be settled by convicts and other rapscallions. America got the Puritans, but our misfits and ne'er-do-wells headed west and became cowboys. In New Mexico!
Sadly, we are presently in the midst of one of the worst fire seasons anyone can remember, fueled by a prolonged severe drought and a quicky heating planet. From my desk, I can look out my window and see a massive plume of smoke from a wildfire near Los Alamos, 50 miles away, and that's not the biggest one burning. Skies are brown throughout the state, and many people have been evacuated or are living in fear of that happening.
We'll pull through; we're a tough bunch!
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YES!!! to everything you wrote. Your post is one of the most inspiring I've read in a very long time. It has made me feel so much better about, well, just about everything. Like us you are now experiencing your share of environmental problems - take consolation in recent political events here in Australia, this month we have dumped the toxic establishment supporters we elected in 2013 and again in 2015 to govern our country and replaced hem with, at least we hope, responsible and mature leaders. \time will tell and we will see. In democratic societies, this is possible, wherever we live.

I have just poured myself a generous glass of good Coonawarra red wine, which I'm enjoying while reading your post again. Bliss on a budget.

I will use this post as a sort of springboard to comment that, having just now gone through the entire eight pages, the images in this thread are the most inspiring I've seen for a very long time. There must be something about New Mexico that brings out the best in us as photographers. Or is it the 'combo' of Tri-X and a red filter?? If yes, how I wish I had known this in the '70s!!

PS Indonesian and Malaysian chiles (called "sambal" there) are as potent - and delicious - as your local home-growns. Take it from one who knows...
 
ozmoose said:
... here in Australia, this month we have dumped the toxic establishment supporters we elected in 2013 and again in 2015 to govern our country and replaced hem with, at least we hope, responsible and mature leaders. \time will tell and we will see. In democratic societies, this is possible, wherever we live.
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Good luck to you with your new Socialists. Similarly-minded 'adults' here have done 'wonders' in every large city and the nation as a whole over the past 2 years.
 
james.liam said:
Good luck to you with your new Socialists. Similarly-minded 'adults' here have done 'wonders' in every large city and the nation as a whole over the past 2 years.
Click to expand...

Yes. Australia has a small population (about 25 million) and is rich in natural resources. In its time it had a political system that strived to make the best use of the good things capitalism had to offer, and at the same time adequately provided for those in need. Every now and then the political wheel turns a full circle and we elect hard, harsh, right-wing business-minded governments that take away all this and give mostly to their good mates in business.

On May 21 we elected the good guys with enough of a majority (in our parliament that means 76 or more seats out of 151, and the new government currently has 77 seats). They intend to return funding to the basics that make Australia such a good place to live. So yes, we live in hope.

However, high Inflation has reared its ugly head. Some of it is difficult to understand as we are an agricultural nation and produce more than enough food for ourselves. No-one understands why food prices are so high (some items have gone up by 25% in the last 12 months), but this seems to be a global phenomenon now.

The cost here of everything photographic is sky-high. 120 film for my Rolleis as well as color processing are now too expensive for me. Until a few years ago I could bulk-order film from the USA or suppliers in Europe, to keep my costs down (to a little over half what the stuff sold here in Melbourne). Now not so - postage rates from North America and most of Europe are too high.

As I'm retired, I keep my interest going by using up old film stocks I've hoarded and buying expired film whenever I find it. My home darkroom relies on "home brewed" developers I mix myself. Fixer I have enough for a few more years, but it's in liquid containers, so I'm unsure if it will last without deteriorating.

Many other photographers I know, of my "vintage" with film gear and darkrooms, all tell me they are doing the same.

Others, especially so the young who for a long time were the ones to "play" with film, are now turning more to digital. An era is passing.

Enough said, all this is taking us away from this excellent thread on photography in New Mexico. The images I've seen posted here are truly inspiring, and make me want to return to the state I called home for two years in the 1970s - in a world where everything moves too quickly and change is a constant, it's refreshing to see many scenes I recall from almost half a century ago, and realise so many things in NooMex are as they were.
 
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