Documentary Photography, New Mexico, Photography That Matters

THE MEES AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

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Right there, right in La Mesa, New Mexico, four days ago, is the lesson on why we do DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY!
My documentary photography class at New Mexico State University (NMSU) has been doing a project for the past twelve years, the Small Village New Mexico project (SVNM), documenting the small villages in southern New Mexico.
One of the students’ favorites towns is La Mesa. Probably because there has been one guy, Joe Mees, who rebuilds cars and Harleys, and has always been very welcoming to the students. It doesn’t hurt that he looks very cool!
Last Thursday, we met Tim Mees, Joe’s son.. He told us of that “Joe has been bed-ridden for about a year.”

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Cinema, Mesilla Valley, New Mexico

MOVIE-MAKING IN NEW MEXICO

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Photo and text by Ivan Perea

On November 3 at Mesilla Plaza in front of San Albino’s Basilica, the Journalism 320 (Photojournalism) class from New Mexico State University (NMSU) ran into a movie production scene being produced by the Creative Media Institute (CMI) department, which is a film-making department at NMSU. It was the last day of shooting on an independent film that began weeks before. The initial filming started in in Los Angeles.

Actor in a 1954 Chevrolet pickup, Mesilla, New Mexico, Nov., 2022
Photograph by ©Ivan Perea

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New Mexico, Photography, The Human Condition

ESCAPE

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School girl escaping from photographer, Hatch, New Mexico, 2021

Editorial and Photograph by Bruce Berman

It’s not the era that was.
People no longer are curious when they see a photographer, they’re nervous.
“What do you want? Are these going to end up on the web (yes)?”
“Do you work for the government (immigration for instance)?” No.
“I don’t like this!”
Or worse! “Give me that camera.”
If you grew up in the era of Vivian Maier (I was a little afterwards)… if Vivian Maier were alive today… she’d probably be shooting flowers.
Innocence lost.
Of course the essential: question is -and always was- what right does a photographer have to just randomly take photographs of complete strangers and do what they will with them?
I have never successfully been able to answer that question. I try to collaborate with people I photograph where consent is given.
But I stray!
Every once in awhile I -we?- just have to grab the moment.
That moment is my escape, as well.

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Beauty, Magic, New Mexico

MAGIC

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Birds, Las Cruces New Mexico by Perla Lopez, 2022

Text by Bruce Berman

Every once in awhile, in my role as a teacher of photography, a student quietly comes up with an image that blows me away. This is one of them.
So simple. So easy. It just has that “it” thing…. magic.

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Cars, Documentary Photography, New Mexico

JOE

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Joe Olds, La Mesa, New Mexico, Small Village New Mexico project (SVNM) by ©Bruce Berman

The Small Village New Mexico project (SVNM) was created as a Documentary Photography teaching tool, for my advanced photojournalism class at New Mexico State University.

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Agriculture, Mesilla Valley, New Mexico

TWO WAY HORSES

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Horse barn. Mesilla Valley, New Mexico, 2018

Photograph and text by Bruce Berman

The Mesilla Valley extends from Radium Springs, New Mexico, to the west side of El Paso, Texas. It is intersected by the Rio Grande river (which becomes the Rio Bravo on the Mexican side, which begins in El Pas/Juárez) The valley is  characterized by its few remaining bosques, as well as its native cottonwood trees.

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Cars, Funklands, New Mexico, Roadside Attractions

TRUCK WARRIOR

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Twisted Ford. Doña Ana, New Mexico, 2014

We like old cars because they’re like older people. A little twisted, Smashed up a little. Never gonna be what they were. Their very existence holds clues and mysteries about where they’ve been, what they did, where they lived, what happened to them.

The mysteries: What happened to twist her teeth? When did her paint  disappear? What color had she been before the golden rust appeared? What tasks did this truck warrior perform through her long and, I am sure, honorable service? Who mourned her decent?

These things we will never know. There’s the limitation of a photograph: her past cannot be known, nor her future. There is only this, my noticing of now.

I guess the ultimate question is, does she still run?

¿Se serve?

If so, who does she serve and what service is left to do?

 

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New Mexico, Roadside Attractions, Street Photography

Little House on Wheels In New Mexico

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Van and palms, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 2015
Van and palms, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 2015

Text and Photograph by Bruce Berman

Funk.

There’s a little left.

The era of funk is passing.

What’s left is either pure decay or rot from an era of plastic, synthetics and lack of design distinction.

What would you rather see, a decaying car from the 40s, 50’s or 60s or a decaying anything from afterwards? Afterwards it’s just junk that was of little endearment before it fell into disuse.

Besides, the stuff from the post war era is almost gone, all hung up in bars in places like Austin, Portland, Cincinnati, Boca Raton and Chicago.

Authentic ruin is hard to come by. It’s a good investment for those who aspire to never ever actually live with it.

The “backlands” of the USA are either redeveloped or falling into unlivable ruin.

There are people in there, by choice or circumstance.

My next era of work will be an exploration of Authentic Ruin in the Backlands.

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