While walking the perimeter of the gardens that surround that old railroad hotel, I was struck by the play of light on this saintly sculpture set within a niche in the garden wall.
No doubt Mary Colter, the famed architect who designed La Posada in 1928, noticed the play of light here as well. I spent about fifteen minutes photographing the sculpture from various angles, and found this slightly off to one side vantage point worked most expressively for me. The spirit of the saint, in the form of a shadow, leaves the body and fills the illuminated wall of the niche. Colter’s graceful arch encloses both sculpture and shadow. The stones that radiate from the arch echo the rays of the sun itself. I photograph more than a statue here. I photograph its relationship to light, shadow, and architecture, and imply its meaning – spirituality -- in the process.