Working in the Studio with My Students

"Green Animal Ballet" by Steve Ausherman

students create amidst rolls of paper and hot lamps.

                                               hands twist focus rings and adjust aperture settings. 

eyes squint in the darkness of viewfinders.

                                               still life objects clutter tabletops.

the darkened classroom transformed into a creative cave.

                                               kids strain and laugh, compose and pose.

dust illuminated in the heat of lamp light.

                                               kids on the brink of adulthood still hanging on.

objects of childhood still litter their photographs like promises.

                     

Autumn Returns to The High Mountains

"Aspen Glade" by Steve Ausherman
Upper Sandia Mountains, New Mexico

"Golden Pine" by Steve Ausherman
Upper Sandia Mountains, New Mexico

"Wet Road After Retreating Storm" near Angel Fire, NM

clouds building upon mountain ridges, sundown approaching, road steaming, small of wet grass and ozone, elk in the high meadows bugling, cows in low pastures grazing, plump tom turkey in creek-choked meadow, satellite radio playing English World Cup soccer post-game breakdown, light bending amidst the setting sun, hiss of the occasional passing car, mountain air 

Beware of Falling Cows!

"Beware" by Steve Ausherman
Red River, New Mexico
2010

Afternoon Wine, Carbondale, Colorado

"Carbondale Wine #1"by Steve Ausherman, 2010

friends and conversation, Mt. Sopris out the window, kids playing on the deck,
golden wine and dark beer, music pouring through the kitchen,
light fading afternoon deep, deer down by the river, ravens drifting out back,
cold tile floors, laughter, dog asleep nearby, memories.

"Carbondale Wine #2"
by Steve Ausherman, 2010

Descending Clouds Over Colorado Barn

"Descending", Crested Butte, CO, 2003

Denise and I spent a wonderful 4th of July day taking in the parade in Crested Butte, exploring shops, and sightseeing within the town. Towards the end of the day, we were walking through a part of town where old buildings and fields still held sway despite the encroachment of new development everywhere you looked. It was one of those magical afternoons in the West where the clouds, mountains, and descending afternoon light mix to create an unbelievable panorama. My friend Ben held his daughter on his shoulders  and were trying to get the attention of horses in a nearby field. Denise and our friend Hillary were walking and talking, laughing and catching up. I frantically snapped images with my 35 mm camera hoping that the light would hang in the sky long enough for me to capture the moment in framed images of barbed wire fences, grazing horses, aging barns, and distant mountains.

Virgin de Guadalupe Mural, Ojo Caliente, New Mexico

"Ojo Caliente Guadalupe" 2007 by Steve Ausherman

This Guadalupe Mural is painted upon a weathered wall in the small northern New Mexico town of Ojo Caliente. I took this image on a plastic Holga camera while on a trip to Colorado in 2007. Heading north on route 285, the road seems to form a cut between worn sandstone cliffs on the right and a low valley on the left filled with farmland, modest houses and a thin, twisting creek. Entering the small town of Ojo Caliente and smelling the river mix with blown cottonwood leaves and the sulphur smell of springs, I encountered this mural on an adobe wall to my right. I parked the car and poked around while I occasionally pointed my camera lens between the rusting strands of barbed wire that encircled an empty yard to snap pictures. This Virgin de Guadalupe beams benevolence outwards from the deteriorating crust of the this earthen, adobe wall.