In the Footsteps of O’Keeffe and Adams: San Francisco de Assisi Mission

By Olivia Discon

While our time in Taos was brief, we wanted to maximize our chance to photograph the famous San Francisco de Assisi Mission. Upon arriving last night, we left our hotel–in temperatures of about eight degrees–to photograph the famous mission.

Construction began in the late 18th century and was completed in 1816. The Spanish settlements featured key aspects of their mission and culture, with churches being centrally located within a plaza that was easy to defend.

Although the Mission has been endlessly photographed and painted, we haven’t seen a lot of night scenes. Part of that may be that, as we found out, is that it is difficult to photograph at night.

To the extent that the temperatures and light allowed, we did our best to photograph the building. With the many lights in the front of the building, we were drawn to the building’s rear, with its beehive buttresses and intriguing contours.

I was able to get a night shot, without some of the distracting street lights. But these lights did drown out some of the stars that we would have liked to have seen. 

Fortunately, we were able to try again early the next day, just as it was being touched by the morning sun. Having the chance to view this structure in two different capacities was not only exciting to witness, but also to photograph!

Cinthia and I got the chance to be creative and capture our separate perceptions of the church and how it interacts with its landscape.

Intriguingly, the community meets every June to use a mixture of mud and straw to repair the exterior adobe. Seeing the structure in person, it’s easy to see why the community is attached to it–and why tourists, such as us, flock to it.

It’s also easy to see why artists and photographers flock to it. In fact, several people we spoke with described it as one of the most photographed churches in the United States.

That is certainly evidence from the different art galleries and museums we visited!

It was, in short, a beautiful way to end our time in New Mexico!