ADOBE STYLE IN DETAILS

Adobe style details, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

I haven’t created any interesting photos during the last couple days but I still work with some of the images I made in October last year during our road trip to New Mexico. Long before we went there I have been fascinated with adobe buildings and the way they are designed and built. Many places in New Mexico have adobe style architecture, even if some newer ones use modern construction materials but are made to look like the historic churches found in the area.

All photos in today’s blog post were shot just around the famous San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Rancho de Taos, New Mexico. We visited the church on two days at different times and with different light. Many of my detail images were made while strolling around the church, apparently with black & white in mind, and this will certainly happen. However, some pictures live also from their colors or color contrast and triggered my desire to develop them the way you see them here. I hope you enjoy!

LONG TIME ON MY LIST

San Francisco de Asís Mission Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, 2021

Years ago, when I saw for the first time Ansel Adam’s photo Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos, from circa 1929, in one of his books, I put this great architectural monument on my mental list of things I wanted to photograph sometime in the future.

Construction of this church began in 1772 and it is an example of a New Mexico Spanish Colonial Church. The San Francisco de Asís Mission Church is a large Adobe structure with a cruciform plan and it has attracted many painters and photographers in the past. It is the rear side of the church with its massive buttress and its adobe plaster surface that inspired many artists, like Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams, or Paul Strand.

We visited the church on two different days and at different times and each provided its own challenges with lighting and keeping unwanted elements out of the frame. In fact I zoomed with my feet a lot and went relatively close to the structure and with the 16-35 mm lens on camera.

The photo above was made at our second visit during late afternoon. The side light gives the structure depth and the adobe plaster surface reveals its texture.

Ansel Adams describes the front aspects of the church in his book Examples: The Making of 40 photographs as being “moderately impressive” and points out that “the rear elevation defines the building as one of the great monuments of America”. I only can agree and also realized that the surrounding of the church on either side is probably a lot busier than it was more than 90 years ago when he created his famous photograph.

Photographed during late morning on our first visit. The only way to work from the rear side was to keep the powerful sun behind the building and use it as a backlight. I darkened the sky a bit and used the sun to outline the structure at the top. The Saint Francis Church is a wonderful subject to photograph, but as so often, back at home and in front of the computer I find out what I missed and want to go back again…