More About the Image:
Ansel designated this image of an abode church just south of the Taos Pueblo, as ‘an experience of light.’ (LAA pg. 54) Beaumont Newhall would call the edifice southwestern motif Number 1, it famously having been the subject of a number of photographs and paintings. (AAM) The building was constructed in 1776 and Ansel referred to the structure as an example of ‘rigorous and simple design [while] the rear elevation defines this building as one of the great architectural monuments of America.’ (E pg. 91) This rear portion of the church is the subject of Ansel’s photograph here. He would go on to say that ‘the building is not really large, but it appears immense [with the organic buttresses seemingly] an outcropping of the earth rather than merely an object constructed upon it.’ (E pg. 91) Ansel communicated the significance of this image by including it as one of the variants in his last major project, The Museum Set.