56 E l P a l a c i o

ON EXHIBIT

Images selected from the collection of the Photo Archives

at the Palace of the Governors and from contemporary

photographers committed to an ongoing documentation of

the city illuminate the multiple meanings of a place given

to evolving landscapes and various inhabitants. Photography

is the medium to provide a unique visual representation of a

complex and challenging, open-ended environment that con-

tinues to feel Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and other

Euroamerican influences. The exhibition itself, which is divided

into broad and overlapping themes of place, history, and identity,

reveals visual existential experiences that come from shifting

boundaries, differing patterns of cultural behavior, and changing

perspectives of both natural and man-made symbolic surround-

LEFT: Jesse L. Nusbaum (1887–1975), Santa Fe, 1912. Silver gelatin print,

5 x 7 in. Neg. No. 61510.

TOP RIGHT: Postcard/Unknown, Ancient La Fonda Which Stood on Site of Present

Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico, n. d. Postcard, 3½ x 5½ in. Neg. No. 13040.

BOTTOM RIGHT: T. Harmon Parkhurst (1883–1952), Staab and Galisteo Buildings,

West San Francisco Street at Galisteo Street, ca. 1933–34. Contemporary archival digital

print from original film negative, 8 x 10 in. Neg. No. 51463.

All are courtesy of Photo Archives, Palace of the Governors (MNM/DCA).

New Mexico is a photographer’s paradise: the incandescent quality of the light, dramatic cloud formations, and expansive landscape have attracted photographers to our state since nearly the beginning of photographic history. Santa Fe’s adobe architecture, meandering streets, and histori-cal place in the artistic, literary, and anthropological canons have brought distinguished artists and thinkers to the “City Different.” From roughly 1850 to the present, photography has been used effectively to document, create, and promote Santa Fe’s image. The exhibition Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe uses that photography to tell the city’s visual story as it celebrates its 400th anniversary as the oldest capital city in North America.

Creating Santa Fe

THROUGHtheLENS

ings. While some of the photographs provide a broad perspective

on cultural and social transformations and characteristics, the

exhibition also contains photographs that reveal a more intimate

side of the city’s history.

Memories turn a site into a cultural landscape, and nothing

can spark buried, hidden memories faster than photography.

While Santa Fe is a city that thrives on history—sometimes

superficially, sometimes profoundly, sometimes ponderously, but

always with certain poignancy—it poses a particular challenge

to the photographer. Image-makers have greatly influenced the

perception of Santa Fe as a unique place, even elevating it to

a near-magical international reputation and skewing much of

the world’s “understanding” of what it was and is.

As with all old photographs, Santa Fe on film can evoke a

palpable nostalgia even in those who recognize nothing in them

Memory and imagination are

important components in

developing a sense of place.

By showing how Santa Fe

looked over the past 150

years, images provide a

measure the circular rather

than linear nature of time.

P L A C E

E l P a l a c i o 57

yet feel a sense of longing. At the same time, these same photo-

graphs can dispel the illusion of authenticity offered by today’s

well-meaning but frequently inaccurate imitations of the original

city. Contemporary photographs of the street-level city snapped

by a slick-postcard photographer compared to those taken by

an analytically skilled artist-photographer can look very much

the same. As a place, Santa Fe’s cityscapes are calmly dominant,

hard to manipulate, superficially readable, and always opaque.

Once past the ubiquitous quaintness of adobes and hollyhocks

or bright blue doorways and the gold bloom of chamisa ever-

present in postcards, the lure of Santa Fe’s omnipresent charm

spreads to broader vistas and deeper appreciation.

By showing what Santa Fe has looked like over the past

century and a half, the images in Through the Lens provide a way

to measure the circular rather than linear nature of time spent.

They trace the changes and assess the visual impact of those

who choose to visit or stay. Being a part of any place, whether

for a week or a lifetime, means taking responsibility in some

measure for how its image is projected to the greater world

The Santa Fe mystique is a creation that has been supported

by many differing interests over the years. Roughly one million

visitors from around the world visit annually to experience the

ON EXHIBIT

The Santa Fe mystique is

a creation supported by

differing interests. Roughly

a million visitors come

to Santa Fe each year to

experience the landscape,

architecture, and cultural

flavor the make the city

one of the most success-

ful tourist destinations in

the country.

I D E N T I T Y

58 E l P a l a c i o

landscape, architecture, and cultural flavor that make Santa Fe

one of the most successful tourist destinations in the United

States. Tourism plays a role in defining cultural identity since

it is a motivating force for emphasizing certain cultural aspects

of a place. Native American and Hispanic cultural identity is,

therefore, unavoidably influenced by the fact that Santa Fe is a

tourist town in which local culture and history have been made

into commodities for sale by the tourism industry.

A curious aspect of early photographs taken of Native

peoples of the region was the staging of scenes and frequent

use of inappropriate props. Many early photographers, includ-

ing John Hillers, Ben Wittick, and, most famously, Edward S.

Curtis, who borrowed costumes from the Smithsonian, posed

their subjects with the same props and backdrops regardless of

their authenticity or correctness. This practice often resulted in

an odd blending of cultures that created an overly romanticized

E l P a l a c i o 59

LEFT: Teresa Neptune (1958–), Santa Fe Rail, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2004. Ultra-

chrome print, 12 x 18 in. Courtesy of the artist.

ABOVE: J. R. Riddle (dates unknown), Bandstand, Plaza, Santa Fe, ca. 1888. Contem-

porary archival digital print form copy negative, 5 x 7 in. Courtesy of Photo Archives,

Palace of the Governors (MNM/DCA), Neg. No. 76049.

Images by some of the ear-

liest known photographers

in Santa Fe established the

core collections of what

is now the Photo Archives

at the Palace of the

Governors. Photographers,

anthropologists, and

writers who visited New

Mexico in the mid-to-late

1800s helped to shape

the American image of the

region through their inter-

related bodies of work.

H I S T O R Y

60 E l P a l a c i o

ON EXHIBIT

and often false view of what traditional Native life would have

looked like in the last fifty years of the nineteenth century. The

portrayal of the dominant Hispanic cultural was equally com-

plex and convoluted.

Photography and Santa Fe tourism remain inextricably

linked as the photographic industry continues to pull people to

Santa Fe for workshops of all kinds. There are more excellent

photography galleries in Santa Fe than in any other city its size,

several world renowned for their commitment to photographic

excellence. Santa Fe’s current photographic community is inte-

grated into the larger Santa Fe community, as were the early Santa

Fe art circles, and its involvement with social issues is equally

committed. The exhibition not only contains photographs made

by one culture viewing another though a lens, but also many that

photographers made of each other over the years. These images

reveal close connections between the photographers, drawn to

Santa Fe by what they saw in the light and a strong sense of kin-

ship. While all of these photographs contribute to the romantic

view of the charms of living in Santa Fe, they also reveal what’s

real. When published and exhibited, such photographs become

part of the photographic history of Santa Fe, part art-world com-

modity, and part visual legacy of place. ■

Memories turn a site into a CULTURAL LANDSCAPE, and nothing can spark buried,

HIDDEN MEMORIES faster than PHOTOGRAPHY.

ABOVE: George Ben Wittick (1845–1903), Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe, New Mexico,

April 1881. Contemporary archival digital print from original glass plate negative,

5 x 8 in. Photo Archives, Palace of the Governors (MNM/DCA), Neg. No.15854.

From essays by Frances Levine, Lucy Lippard, Andrew Leo Lovato, Rina Swentzell,

Krista Elrick, Mary Anne Redding, Siegfried Halus, and David Grant Noble for Through

the Lens: Creating Santa Fe, published by the Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe,

2009. The exhibition Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe continues at the Palace of the

Governors through October 25, 2009. The project received support from the Scanlan

Family Foundation, New Mexico Council on Photography, Santa Fe Art Foundation,

Museum of New Mexico Foundation, Palace Guard support group, Tourism Cares,

and Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum. ■ For further reading:

Santa Fe: History of an Ancient City, edited by David Grant Noble, School for Advanced

Research Press, Santa Fe, 2008.

E l P a l a c i o 6116 E l P a l a c i o

NEWS & NOTES

The New Mexico History Museum Welcomes CalligraphersAs part of the new exhibitions Illuminating the Word: The Saint

John’s Bible and Contemplative Landscape, calligraphers from Al-

buquerque and Santa Fe will demonstrate a wide variety of

book crafts in the History Museum’s second-floor Gathering

Space, through Saturday, April 7.

How do quills, ink and vellum work together? How delicate

is gold leaf? How do you stitch a medieval book? How does

your name look in calligraphic script? Come find out.

The calligraphers and bookbinders belong to Escribiente,

Albuquerque’s calligraphy guild, and the Santa Fe Book Arts

Group. They plan to be available from 10 am to noon and 1-3

pm on Saturdays and Sundays, though winter weather may oc-

casionally interrupt those plans. Keep an eye open during the

week, too: Calligraphers sometimes show up and set up shop

for the love of it. Bring your curiosity and your questions. Not

only are the volunteers good at what they do, but they love to

talk about the book arts.

The Museum of International Folk Art Welcomes the iPod TouchVisitors are often both delighted and astounded by Alexander

Girard’s one-of-a-kind exhibition Multiple Visions: A Common

Bond. The vastness of the exhibit space, the complexity of the

design, the sheer quantity of objects on display can be over-

powering and—without wall labels—initially confusing. This

was all part of Girard’s design. He did not want text mediating

the relationship between viewer and object. Girard carefully

crafted vignettes of objects that he felt belonged together, mak-

ing folk art accessible, without labels.

But if Girard didn’t like wall text and object labels in his

gallery, how would he have felt about the iPod? We think this

innovator would have loved it. This month Multiple Visions:

A Common Bond enters the iPod era, and you don’t have to

bring your own. iPod Touch devices may be checked out at

no charge from the museum’s front desk, enabling visitors to

embark on a multimedia, self-guided tour. Twenty-two cases

spring to life through audio and video of vibrant festivals from

around the world, colorful dance scenes, and lively music. Art-

ist interviews and video of artists at work are also available.

Like the exhibition, which has no starting point, the elec-

tronically guided voyage through 100 countries can begin any-

where, as visitors select the tours (in English or Spanish) in any

EvokeContemporary.com

The Valley Shouts For Joy, oil on canvas, 36 x 72

LOUISA MCELWAIN

order. There are also three themed tours; Girard’s Vision (20

minutes), Watch the Artist (30 minutes), and Folk Art in Daily

Life (45 minutes).

The Girard multimedia project was developed by Museum

of International Folk Art staff and consultants, Antenna In-

ternational, and funded by the Folk Art Committee/Friends

of Folk Art of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, The

Bartlett Fund, and the International Folk Art Foundation.

“Windows on History” at the PalaceBuilding on their shared love for the Palace of the Governors,

the members of Los Compadres have created a long-standing

support group of the museum. Besides overseeing the popular

Downtown Walking Tours, the group raises money, advocates

for Palace causes, and lends a hand at numerous events.

Most of that work is done so quietly that you might be un-

aware of it. But their latest project—“Windows on History”—

will soon appear before your very eyes. Last year, Los Com-

padres adopted the Palace’s aging windows as a fund-raising

cause, setting a goal of $40,000. They sold $5 raffle tickets,

held private dinners with history experts as speakers, and

more. In the end, they raised $54,000. Work has begun on

replacing eight of the most seriously impaired windows. Long-

horn Construction expects to complete the job in time for the

December 9 Christmas at the Palace.

The Aguilar Family, Christening, Ocotlán de Morelos, Oaxaca. Mexico.

Museum of International Folk Art. Photograph by Michel Monteaux.