May 7, 2008

Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe









This last weekend Kyle and I went to the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico to celebrate my birthday....29, whew! I have a ton of photos from the weekend and I promise they will come. 

This group of images is from the Loretto Chapel in the Plaza District. This is the second time that I have been here and its beauty never ceases to amaze me. The wooden stair case inside is miraculous and marvelous. It makes two complete 360 degree turns but has no center support and uses no nails or glue. It was built by a single craftsman in the late 1800s. The mystery man built the stair case in less than 6 months and disappeared. Legend says that the staircase was constructed by, or at least inspired by St. Joseph the carpenter. The complete history is here

Kyle and I spent a the good part of an hour inside watching and looking. The man in the third image (it is a time exposure so he is kinda blurry) came and sat down directly in front of my line from the camera to the staircase. When he realized that he had blocked my view, he joked and asked if I was trying to take a picture of him. Then I redirected and TRIED to take his picture. I loved his facial expressions. It was so interesting to sit and watch the people, watching the staircase. There were the ones that just bussed in and out (they appear as color swashes in my images), then there were the people that sat down and soaked it in. Then there was the blind guy. He sat and listened so still, for so long. Im sure the image in his mind was far greater that what we saw.

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