When I consider making a new portrait, my thoughts usually begin with the environment the subject is within. When the environment has fundamental historical significance, the experience becomes really special… and when it is part of the ancient network of ancestral Pueblo peoples [Anasazi] who incorporated carved dwellings in volcanic cliffs as part of their urban life…. well, that’s mind-blowing from this photographer’s point of view. The light, the color, the textures; even the millennia old hearth-fire, blackened interiors of the cliff dwellings are still evident. So, on a recent chilly afternoon, the cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Monument became my ancient shooting studio.
