By
Robert Dodge
Piece description from the artist
New Mexico is one of my very favorite places, both as a place to visit and photograph. Scenes like this old wood fence, barbed wire and the little house are a good example of why I love this place.
This image was taken on a sunny afternoon late in the day. It was a mild Fall day with blue skies, scattered white clouds — and the ancient spirits from about 3,000 years ago. As the wind whipped through the fence posts and the abandoned house, you could hear them whisper your name.
I found this scene off the main highway on the way to Chaco Canyon. Now a national park, Chaco contains the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico. It preserves one of the most important pre-Columbian cultural and historical areas in the United States.
At its zenith, between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancestral Puebloans. The early Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings ever built in North America until the 19th century.[
As with many other historic and natural sites in New Mexico, I honestly feel inspired by the presence of these historical spirits. It’s a place to be grateful for the gift of natural beauty, but of the civilizations that came before us.
Robert Dodge is a writer and fine-arts photographer with specialities in travel, documentary, portrait and LGBT themes, as well as iconic scenes of the nation's capital. Robert has lived in Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years, first as Washington correspondent for The Dallas Morning News. He is currently on a long-term, self-assignment in Bangkok, Thailand, and photo shooting in Southeast Asia as covid restrictions permit. After leaving daily journalism in 2006, he founded Robert Dodge Visual Media. His first major project focused on what happened to Vietnam in the four decades after the war. The project was printed in 2014 as a book, "Vietnam 40 Years Later," by the Italian art-book publisher, Damiani. Ten prints from the project were acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress for its permanent historical collection. The project won top honors in FotoWeekDC's Uncover/Discover contest in 2013. In 2010, an image from the project won an honorable mention in the Santa Fe Workshop's LIGHT contest. And more recently, an image from the book was a winner in LifeFramer's 2020 contest, YOUTHHOOD. As a journalist, The Dallas Press Club honored Robert for his Dallas Life Magazine story "Mr. Bentsen and the President," which chronicled the close relationship between Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and President Bill Clinton. In 1999-2001, Robert was president of the National Lesbian and Journalists Association. Robert continues to work on writing and photography projects and is available for commissions.
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