Mesa Verde National Park
The rainfall on the tilted plateau filters slowly downwards through the sandstone Cliff house formation, percolating until it reaches the less permeable shales at the top of the Menefee formation. Seeping out over the cliff edges, this slow constant water caused the overlying rock to break off and eventually formed the alcoves in which the Anasazi aka Ancient Puebloans, built their cliff houses. It also provided them with a water source. The cliff dwelling appears to be built along this geological stratigraphic unit. This is what the study of geography is about, the merger of landforms and people.
Photographically Mesa Verde is one of the more challenging landscapes for me to capture and relay a sense of what is there. Fortunate to be there for the stunning fall colors, travel to the “photo ops” of the archeological sites is made easy. There are plenty of vantage points to capture the individual communal dwellings. The challenge is to capture the sense that this is a civilization, a culture that lived across a series of canyons. Each community farming and living off a land that at one time was endowed and better suited to agriculture.
Driving the long and winding blacktop there is a sense of emptiness. Yet in the valleys hang these hidden villages. Stone building sites pocket the underlying alcoves. Reminded of the little fiefdoms of ancient Greece and the medieval cities in Europe, they seem to stand alone, surrounded by fields. In some canyon valleys, there are multiple alcoves and structures. What was the connection? Commerce or competing communities?
It is context and a sense of being. A cultural experience that comes from not one or two landmarks, but the intertwined fabric of a people. Pictures seem only to capture individual structures, what’s in front of you. Instead you want to get a sense of an entire civilization. Occasionally you get a glimpse, by panning an entire wall and valley. And you need to transport yourself into and look out, to get a sense of their lives.
It is the totality of the experience, the collection, a culmination of images, that portray the remains of their civilization.
Read MorePhotographically Mesa Verde is one of the more challenging landscapes for me to capture and relay a sense of what is there. Fortunate to be there for the stunning fall colors, travel to the “photo ops” of the archeological sites is made easy. There are plenty of vantage points to capture the individual communal dwellings. The challenge is to capture the sense that this is a civilization, a culture that lived across a series of canyons. Each community farming and living off a land that at one time was endowed and better suited to agriculture.
Driving the long and winding blacktop there is a sense of emptiness. Yet in the valleys hang these hidden villages. Stone building sites pocket the underlying alcoves. Reminded of the little fiefdoms of ancient Greece and the medieval cities in Europe, they seem to stand alone, surrounded by fields. In some canyon valleys, there are multiple alcoves and structures. What was the connection? Commerce or competing communities?
It is context and a sense of being. A cultural experience that comes from not one or two landmarks, but the intertwined fabric of a people. Pictures seem only to capture individual structures, what’s in front of you. Instead you want to get a sense of an entire civilization. Occasionally you get a glimpse, by panning an entire wall and valley. And you need to transport yourself into and look out, to get a sense of their lives.
It is the totality of the experience, the collection, a culmination of images, that portray the remains of their civilization.
