By Ana Livingston Paddock
This book is a photographic journey documenting the “descansos” or shrines to the deceased along the ancient Camino Real highway from the small village of Abiquiu, New Mexico to the village of Mata Ortiz, Mexico.
The geography is a high desert, often very isolated and barren, cursed by harsh climate extremes to include strong winds, dust storms, drought, scorching heat in summer and severe cold in winter. Most of the road today is a well-paved highway built on centuries of history, layers of travel, trade, and conquest, which define this section of Northern Mexico and the Southwest of the United States.
This book has been issued in conjunction with the exhibition of these photographs at the ISEA Albuquerque 2012: Machine Wilderness symposium in New Mexico, Fall 2012.