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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fourteen: Expressing the meaning of buildings and structures > Frontier Mission, Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona, 2009
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11-APR-2009

Frontier Mission, Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona, 2009

The Franciscan mission church San Jose de Tumacacori was established to convert the Pima Indians to Christianity. The church was constructed between 1800 and 1823, and was abandoned during the Mexican War of 1848. Today it remains a picturesque ruin, its cracking walls streaked with calcium and lime. I made this image from the edge of the old mission’s cemetery – which inspired me to build it around the darkness of a door that once led from the church to the grave.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
1/320s f/5.6 at 45.0mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time11-Apr-2009 15:36:45
MakePanasonic
ModelDMC-G1
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length45 mm
Exposure Time1/320 sec
Aperturef/5.6
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias-0.66
White Balance
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis21-Apr-2009 20:58
You are right, Rosemarie, about the sad story of the Mission Indians. While some will see the work of missionaries as divinely inspired, others will see it in the light of history as cultural exploitation. This place was, as you say, haunting. The sky was weeping, we were surrounded with the dead -- and I felt myself drawn towards that black door, which for me was a symbolic link between the church and the grave.
Phil Douglis21-Apr-2009 20:54
Thanks, Tim -- the lesson you speak of here works both ways. Your isolated downspout may well speak of man's attempts to manage the natural world -- to harness and direct the flow of rainwater so that it can be used in a productive way. That is a valid idea, just this image of that same downspout seen in the context of the door and the wall -- a rendering, as you put it, of the "tides of time," -- provides a different, yet equally valid, approach. You are right --we all should work to explore as many possibilities as we can in a given situation. However, in the final edit, each of us must choose the idea that best expresses how we feel about what we are shooting, and what we want to say about it to others.
sunlightpix21-Apr-2009 20:22
So many mission cemeteries are filled with graves of native people that were forced to convert and labor for the church.
How very haunting - a doorway of darkness within. Literally and figuratively, a portal between light and dark.
Tim May21-Apr-2009 20:15
This image is a lesson for me - we WERE standing right next to each other while you made this image. I made an image which I think may make my final cut, when I eventually get there, which isolated just the down spout. I like so much the inclusion of the doorway in the image - The curves of the walls and the wear - speak to me of the tides of time. The lesson? Work a scene a little more to explore the possibilities.
Phil Douglis21-Apr-2009 19:35
If we had been able to work in early or late light at Tumacacori, our images would express entirely different ideas. Such is the power of light as an interpretive tool. We had no magical light there during our visit --it was overcast and often drizzling, but the spirit of the place still comes through in its colors, textures and forms, as well as in the remembrance of its dead.
JSWaters21-Apr-2009 17:57
This brings back great memories for me. I found the magical light at Tumacacori to be so seductive - just as your rich color and texture here suggest. It remains one of my favorite photographic excursions.
Jenene
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