Jemez Blues and Nuclear Echoes
Beauty and a Bunker Buster Reflection
Today’s spontaneous supplementation of my “Framing Resurgence” posts from last month may seem ethereal.
But for the record, this post reflects some hours of photography and framing mechanics. I’ve learned that these applied Sunday activities are essential precursors to understanding places, even if ChatGPT could easily generate provocative visual competitors.
From my vantage point in Tesuque Bowl north of Santa Fe, the Valles Caldera—a supervolcano remnant—and the Jemez Mountains show layers of enduring presence in this dusk telephoto view.
Any attention to the concept of “place” deserves some form of deciphering of what we see,
Blue contours across the Rio Grande soften with distance. Yet the compressed view also suggests a quiet strength, nodding towards the forces that create the image: complex ecosystems, geological forces, as well as ongoing processes of change and adaptation.
Not to mention the convergence of volcanic forces with the nearby nuclear legacy of Los Alamos.
Today, the news is full of stories about bombs that can crater and explode in such places, aimed at destroying the nefarious activity lurking within. The din of CNN and my view of a natural scene—eerily close to the land of Oppenheimer—remind me: Never rest with first impressions; constantly explore the most attractive of hues and the most obscure of themes.