The line between description on one hand and expression on the other often comes down to a matter of mood and atmosphere. If this same image was made two hours later, it would not carry the same nostalgic mood, and would be only a description of a Santa Fe street, with cars, people, less abstraction and more detail. However, I made this image with a 24mm wideangle lens very early in the morning. There was no street or foot traffic whatsoever. Santa Fe light is very special – the city rests at an altitude of 7,000 feet above sea level, and it is relatively free of industrial pollution. Its skies are clear and its morning and afternoon light is warm and brilliant. The inner city is architecturally consistent as well – everything that is built must reflect the style and values of Santa Fe’s past. Galisteo Street is a typical Santa Fe street, now filled with shops of all kinds. A single antiques shop anchors this image – the horses incongruously placed in its window draw the eye and capture the imagination. But the qualities that fuel this image’s emotional content are the nostalgic colors of the warm morning light in the sky and on the buildings, the wideangle emphasis on the abstracted, empty street, and its pervasive sense of silence. All of these qualities provide mood and atmosphere, adding a context and an emotional tone to this street scene, and making an otherwise descriptive scene become an expressive one.