NM GHOST TOWNS + - KELLY & MAGDALENA

 New Mexico has ghost towns, lot of them. The vast majority were associated with booms that resulted in the discovery of precious resources like gold and silver. When a discovery was made, there would be a surge of people coming in to work the deposits and to provide services to those working the deposits. But most of the deposits found in this part of the world were worked out fairly quickly. Then the towns would gradually begin to diminish, and in many cases, die out all together. Ghost towns offer very interesting opportunities for photography. 

On top of this, after the workshop done in Penang, and the focus on using dark spaces and shadows, I was all hot to try shooting black and white. I did have to figure out what setting to use to get black and white pictures. A brief search on YouTube found the answer. 

Our first stop were two towns very close to each other Kelly and Magdalena

First Stop Kelly

Kelly (according to the New Mexico Tru tourisim site) is noted for its rather substantial mining equipment remains. Sadly that part was closed off, only leaving us the town which had had most of its buildings hauled off when they officially closed down the town. However, two intrepid people went back a decade a go and took up residence there.

There was a church, which still is being used.

And some ruins associated with the mines

And the New Mexico species of Espouses Fotograficus 

It was very dusty and I thought this pattern on our car was particularly interesting.

Magdalena

Magdalena is not completely dead. Unlike the mining only towns, Magdalena kept alive through the 20th century due to ranching. But like so many small rural communities, it could not provide economic opportunities for young people and was gradually dying. Then in the 1990's a few intrepid newcomers arrived and began a number of efforts to revitalize the community. So far it has been successful in staving off entropy.

As this was the first time shooting black and white, how I was shooting was evolving with each new location. Here, I started to mix in color pictures to see the difference.

A Study of Patterns

Then we came to the Stockyard/Rodeo Grandstand which was an entire study unto itself.

Finally we bid adieu to Magdalena