New Mexico

Two weeks after the trip I am finally caught up on the photos I took in Colorado and New Mexico. From a photographic perspective the trip exceeded every expectation. The Reddit users who replied to my question about the presence of descansos near Santa Fe and Taos were spot on: the memorials were everywhere!

I ended up having to be choosy about which crosses I stopped to photograph since we only had two days … which was strange. I’m used to stopping at every memorial I see because they are so few and far between.

I did capture the following image, inspired by my trip to the Georgia O’Keefe museum in Santa Fe, which may be my single favorite photograph I have taken so far. Other folks appear to like it as well, as YouPic selected it for an “Inspiration” star after I posted it.

The amount of creativity that went into many of the descansos I came across was mind-blowing. Clearly, culturally, honoring the dead this way is tremendously important.

One thing I am left with for sure is this: I’m definitely going back to New Mexico sometime when I have more time to shoot.

Thank you to everyone on Reddit who pointed me towards specific descansos and encouraged the project along.