SVNM EXPERIENCE
Small Village New Mexico was a great learning experience for me. Traveling to different small villages in New Mexico really helped me learn hands on and understand documentary photography better. Our first assignment was Mesilla. I never knew there was actually a small town there, besides restaurants and some shops. Aside from the plaza, Mesilla offered a different view of broken down buildings, outhouses and dated scenery that won’t be around in 50 years. Our next small village was La Mesa. This was a cool experience for me, because it was my first time there. It was cool to document something that I had never seen before such as bike shops, yards filled with antiques or the very popular town restaurant, Chopes. Following La Mesa, was Hatch, New Mexico, which was my favorite small village to shoot. Home of hatch chilis, hence the name, the town had more to offer than I expected. There were beautiful agriculture fields, kids playing in the streets of small neighborhoods and another very famous town restaurant, Sparky’s. The last small village we shot was Anthony, New Mexico and Anthony, Texas. During this shoot, I could really feel the town being taken over my modern living. Old buildings were being renovated and roads were under construction. There were many signs that were split between Spanish and English. Throughout my semester, I learned so much about how things change and how documenting this now can have a huge impact when we go back in 50 years and look at it. Melilla isn’t going to have outhouses from decades ago, La Mesa isn’t going to have yards filled with junk and antiques, Hatch won’t have old tractors rusting in a field and Anthony won’t have an old town anymore. I am happy to be able to document these villages and be a part of this project that represent more and more as time goes on.
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