Occasionally, I have to reach into the archives and pull something out for this photo of the week project. This was taken a few weeks back when I was on my family’s organic orchard in Coachella CA. I wish I had time to shoot every week, alas, I do not, but I am also happy to get to show this image as otherwise it may never have seen the light of day.
In honor of spring’s return, I made this image of the goddess awaking from her winter slumber.
I have already written enough about the Ex-hacienda Jaral de Berrios here, so I won’t bore you with the details. These are some of the new images I finally got around to editing. I am trying some new techniques, using textures over the images to give them a little extra sum thin’ sum thin’. The textures are taken from Brooke Shaden’s texture collection. I like the effect and I am looking forward to creating a texture collection of my own. Thanks Brooke! #shadentextures
Over the past few months, I have been returning to the Ex-Hacienda Jaral de Berio (about which you can read more here), one of my absolute favorite places to photograph. Although, I have an ongoing series that generally fits together, this week I veered off from my usual work. I think in the past I have always, in so many ways, been portraying the spirit that haunts that place. After shooting all morning, suddenly in the afternoon, I had the urge to be the one that the ghosts were haunting. I found myself running around, pretending I was in some sort of horror film. I was hiding, running, trying to survive, and ultimately succumbing to a very Vertigo, moment, when it all gets to me and I commit suicide. So this week, I have decided not to just show one image for my photo of the week, but a whole little series. I would love to know which is your favorite, as only one can truly be my ‘photo of the week.’ Please leave me a message in the comments.
The hacienda Jaral de Berrio, founded 1774, in the current state of Guanajuato, Mexico, was appointed to Miguel de Berrio y Zaldívar, Marquis of Jaral by Charles III, and was Mexico’s largest hacienda. Home to generations of the Berrio lineage, it’s wealthiest owner, Juan Nepomuceno de Moncada y Berrio was considered the richest man in Mexico during the 1830s, and was said to have left a hacienda to each of his 99 sons. During its heyday in the late 19th century, it housed up to 6500 people and had its own railway station, post office, two primary schools, and a parish church. As was the style in this Francophile obsessed society, the main building was lavishly furnished and the walls hand frescoed or plied with imported French wallpaper.
Today, the ex-hacienda is a beautiful decaying ruin that houses the Jaral de Berrio mezcal factory. Visitors have free range to explore every part of this building (at ones own risk of course). Walls are collapsing, the floors of second story rooms have fallen in places, leaving dangerous holes, ceilings expose open sky, and the whole place is overrun with vermin and birds. Completely ransacked over the years, there are no windows or doors, the wooden frames are stripped, fixtures are gone, and all of the copper wire has been pulled directly out of the plaster walls, leaving violent grooves. The ex-hacienda truly is the embodiment of the old cliché “faded glory.” That being said, it is possibly one of the most magical places I have ever been, and I am so lucky to have had the chance to visit several times.
These images were taken on two separate occasions and represent the dualities between light and dark, as well as a departure into a bit more lavish costuming. I have refrained from posting these images, as I am planning on regularly returning to this hacienda to continue to delve into this body of work. Regardless, it felt like unfinished business not to have posted something, and by something I mean a lot of photos.
Over the past year, I have come to really admire a few young, female, photographers, such as Brooke Shaden and Kristy Mitchell. Their dedication and endless creativity is such an inspiration. Although each of their work speaks to a world of dark surreal fairy tales, they both get there in different ways. Brooke uses photoshop to manipulate her images as a painter would work with a canvas, and Kristy spends hundreds of hours building costumes and sets to fulfill her vision. Each path has its merits and I am fascinated by both as a means to achieving vision. The one thing they have very much in common with each other is a dedication to their art and a boundless drive to create.
Thus, in honor of these ladies, I am announcing my new years resolution. I am going to attempt a 52 image project. This means shooting and publishing one photograph a week for a year. This project is intended to push my creativity, and my output. I will be experimenting with all kinds of themes and techniques but trying to stay in the vein of picture making rather than just picture taking. It won’t all be my best work, maybe there will be some real gems and some total bombs, but ultimatally its just about the process. The one thing I ask for is lots of support. I do this for myself, but it is always so much easier with cheerleaders, in fact, I think everything is probably better with cheerleaders.
That being said here is my first image:
“I only grew up on the outside”
A few weeks after I moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was in desperate need of some time away from the city to breathe fresh air, get away from people, and feel that I was in nature. Thankfully, I had just made a new friend, Carrie Haugh. Carrie was in the final stages of acting in a short film that would go on to be an official entry in the Guanajuato Film Festival. The last scene they needed to shoot was a dream sequence that takes place in a flowering lavender field. Although, there is a lot of agriculture in this area of Mexico, it is mostly known to be a hot and dry climate. One is much more likely to think of towering prickly-pear cactus trees than French lavender fields. Alas, this place is always full of surprises.
After forty-five minuets of barreling down a Mexican freeway in an old van with questionable steering and brakes, we pulled onto a dirt road and followed the signs to an enormous lavender farm. For various reasons, Guanajuato is a state from which men emigrate heavily to find work in the USA. The sad side effect being that whole towns are left with only women, children, and the elderly to continue to support their community. Rather than allowing these pueblos to sink even further into poverty and ultimately disappear, an NGO out of Albuquerque, New Mexico is bringing in The Lavender Project. A wonderful program, these co-op lavender farms have created a fantastic renewable source of employment and income (Please visit their web page to find out more: http://thelavenderproject.com/). The products they make are divine and they have a chocolate-lavender soap that smells so good I could live in it.
It was such a relief to step out of the car and inhale the fresh lavender plants drying out after a light rain. The film crew went to work and I was left with several hours and a field of my own in which to play. I even crawled over the fence and into some of the aforementioned prickly pear cactuses to take photos. It really is stunning to spend an afternoon in a place as surreal as a lavender field and I can assure you my need to “get away from it all” was quenched.
I met Foxie Flambé last summer camping in Jackson Hole, Montana. We had both been invited to a spiritual gathering that celebrated the opening of the Sacred Door Trail, a 165-mile long, nondenominational, circular, pilgrimage route. For four days and nights, we kept a sacred fire burning, listened and participated, while spiritual leaders from faiths around the globe blessed the space. For many of us, it was an intense and changing experience, full of great joy and great release. On the last night, Foxie sidled up to me and asked if I would be interested in wearing a feather Mohawk. Obviously, I said yes.
Fast-forward seven months, I get an email from Foxie asking me to purchase a ticket for the festival event Leyend Eterna. At first, I balked, and totally missed the chance. I had reservations, the event was being held across the Mexicali border in a desert canyon in Baja, Mexico, an area known for border violence. Knowing I had missed the opportunity, I stopped thinking about it until a month later when I received another email, they had released more tickets. At the time I was traveling through Mexico and had nothing but a suitcase full of clothes, no camping gear whatsoever. Foxie promised me that she was fully equipped to host me. If I just showed up at her house in Orange County a day or so before the event to purchase food and pack, she had all the camping gear and costumes I would ever need. I bought the ticket.
One month, and a pickup truck brimming with gear later; I was watching the sunrise as we drove south. What followed was one of the most unique festival events I have ever attended. Leyenda is much like Burningman, but set in an arid desert canyon with an oasis of palm trees and fresh running hot and cold springs. The six hundred or so participants are assigned small campsites, each with their own natural hot tub. During the day, hot weather is offset by hiking up to icy waterfalls, where one can brave high rock jumps into the deep pools below. On Saturday, there is an annual pool party where all attendees come dressed in their finest festival regalia to dance, swim, and enjoy their vice of choice. Thankfully, the main stage does not bump twenty-four hours a day, which allows you to really enjoy the tranquil, natural beauty, of the place. At night though, the party is on and everyone gets down on the dance floor until the sun comes up.
I was encamped right next to the main stage with Hullabaloo. The core of camp Hullabaloo is a group of circus performers known as Lucent Dossier. Needless to say, over the top pranks, performances, and general shenanigans were the norm and there was never a moment when someone wasn’t in hysterics laughing. I felt super welcome in this group, and I am so thankful that knowing no one but Foxie, I was surrounded by such fun-loving, caring souls.
Each night, as the moment struck me, I snuck off and did photo shoots in the beautiful, moonless, desert, darkness. Although, on very dark nights the challenge is to figure out how to light myself, the stars that appear in these images really bring out a special beauty. For a few of these shoots, I was able to borrow Isis wings from Foxie, a special treat that I hope to revisit someday. I am really happy with the work that I accomplished over these four nights, the last being a photo shoot with Miss Foxie Flambé herself. Enjoy the images, and if anyone ever sends you an invite to Leyenda Eterna, don’t hesitate!
As always, double click to enlarge and please feel free to share, repost and subscribe. Xoxo –janelle
After years of returning to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, I have had several opportunities to shoot images in El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden. This is truly one of my favorite places on the planet. A constantly changing environment, this place shifts and transforms dramatically with the seasons. This was the first time I have been there during the height of the dry season, when the presa reveals itself to be an exquisite cracked mud plane. It was such a strange sensation taking photos in places that, only a few months ago, were under several feet of water.
I arrived at sunset on a hot sunny day expecting to work into a warm and productive night. Unfortunately, weather in the desert is always unpredictable, and where I had been wearing summery sundresses all week, a bitter cold wind decided to blow in and really ruin our fun. My companion was truly impressed with my ability to strip down to a dress and get at least a few hours worth of work done. By the time we returned home we both needed long hot showers to thaw out and get our core temperatures back to normal.
Though the almost full moon and the beautiful location were truly perfect, the freezing temperatures really hindered my creativity. We left vowing to return the following night but I ended up getting really sick and just could not muster enough late night energy. Thankfully, the Charco is always there, ever changing but ready for future projects.
As always, click on the images for a larger view, and feel free to share or subscribe.
For some reason, I have really been slacking on writing this post. It has been almost a month since I took these images and still I have not put them up. Maybe it is because I am not really sure if I like any of these images, or maybe I have just been having too much fun and writing my blog feels like homework. Regardless, I have since done new work, so I have to get this out of the way.
These images were taken at three different Mayan temple/city complexes on the Yucatan peninsula, Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, and Tulum. At this point I have taken images at six different temple locations and although some of the images have come out well, it is really difficult to dodge the tourists, get images with out ropes and signs, be barricaded from getting close to or climbing on the ruins (yeah, yeah, I know) and thus, I never feel very satisfied when I leave. One thing I have learned is that my best images happen when I am completely alone, no assistants, and no audience. When I am in these locations, my mind just reels with “what ifs,” aka: what if I had this all to myself, what if tripods were allowed and I didn’t have to hide mine from the guards, what if I could be here at night, etc. I know that on special occasions such as equinoxes, they allow adventurous tourists into the ruins at night, but excepting this, I think I am over shooting in super touristy ruins.
That being said, I did get up early enough to avoid the hoards of tour busses and get a few nice images. Lately, I have been trying to explore some different ideas with my work, so you will see some of the same and some new looking stuff. I was too lazy to give this a hard edit, and after all there were three different shoots involved so there are lots of images to look at. Special thanks to my assistant who knows who he is. As always, click on an image for a larger view, and please share! Much love — Janelle
