Chaco Canyon

I came back recently from a brief trip to Chaco Canyon with <a

href="http://www.zianet.com/connealy/chaco/index.html"

target="new">some photos</a>. Wonderful place. Never enough time.

Very fine job on these photos, Mike. On several, I wanted the option of opening a larger version.

I'm sure you are right about the photo size. I tend to be very conservative about uploads because of my own slow modem connection. I guess I need to think more along the lines of having alternate versions for low and high speed access. In the past, I've dealt with this issue mostly by using thumbnail displays, but in this current project it seemed like making people click on thumbnails would drag down the flow of the narrative too much. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks for posting this , Mike. Interesting essay. In an internet cafe, I did find the download a bit slow, so was glad they weren't larger, in fact.

Thanks for taking the time to go through it. I've added a little preamble to the opening page explaining a bit about my goals for the essay. I would be interested in any thoughts people might have about how well I accomplished those objectives with the techniques I chose to use. - mike

Great street photographs.

There were actually quite a few opportunities to hipshoot the other tourists. However, I was trying to make contact with the original residents.

Bill, you're an asshole.

nice - but you might want to post them to Photo.net/travel_photography/rocks_trees_waterfalls/canyons/old_places ....

I enjoyed them. I was in NM this past fall, but didn't have the time to go to Chaco Canyon. I plan on returning and it is on my list. <p>

I really enjoyed the fact that you mixed color in with the B&W as both give off a completely different feeling of the same location. The color of the rocks & ground are wonderfuly captured on film & the timeless quality of the location is brought out by the B&W. I also enjoyed the comentary as it added to the experience. Sorry about your cooler :-)

Heather, thanks for the kind words about my little story. I suspect that there may not be more than a handful of folks on photo.net who think that documenting rural and wilderness areas is still a good idea. I'll probably continue to muddle along with the idea as I happen to live in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert with no neighbors in sight. Which is not to say that I don't appreciate urban stories, of course, but it is kind of a long drive for me to get to any place that has sidewalks.

great documentary photos

It appears a few people subscribe to the general notion that documentary photography belongs to cities.<p>

 

I particularly liked <a href="http://www.zianet.com/connealy/chaco/pageg.html">this one</a>. It's kind of a documentary record of somebody else's documentary record, and theirs would seem to have better archival permanence -- not that the swallows care. Maybe we're all barking up the wrong tree (or rock face, as the case may be)....

The architecture and petroglyph images that Mike captured are a good document of this abandoned 11th-century city, as well as its modern context as tourist trap.

 

I enjoy every opportunity to photograph at Chaco. I would also like to see more images of the road systems that connected Chaco with other outlying dwelling and religious sites.

 

Its also interesting to consider the Chacoan culture at its height with both European and Central American architecture contemporary to its time.

 

However, I don't understand the bias that prevents images of ancient sites as worthy of the term "street" or "documentary". Unless this category of photography is understood to be only of contemporary context.

 

In that regard, the image of the RV parking lot at Chaco would probably satisfy most critics.

 

Good job, Mike.

Nice photographs. We spent a week there one December (mid-1980's) and the campground was empty and the facilities closed, and below freezing temperatures. Not too smart (tent camping), but we had the whole park almost to ourselves. There is a great documentary show (PBS a few years ago) showing it was a seasonal religious place where folks congregated for a short time and then dispersed. Worth watching to get an oversight of its importance to the culture.

 

You've only added to my interest to go back again for a week.