More Than Just A Snapshot

Mirek Towski, the photographer, is wandering around outside with his camera in the -10°F air. He came by the RoadHouse a week or so ago on his way to Colorado and right away he and John started scheming to do a photography workshop in the canyon next year. He came up the canyon on Saturday night to look over the place and talk to me about the details.

Mirek makes his living in Hollywood, mostly photographing celebrities, but he knows how to get outside too. He spent three days traveling around with Billy, photographing horseshoeing, rodeos, and equestrian action. Yesterday John and I took him on our nickel walking tour of all the archaeological sites right around our place - it took 3 hours and we all came back with icy feet. This morning he comes to get his camera out of the parlor and asks for a tiny glass of wine to fortify himself against the cold (Old Russian trick, he says). I am glad he was fortified, because all of our windows are thick with frost.... our coldest night so far this winter.

So.... sometime in May, we will host a photography workshop. The plans are to make it 3 days with a 2 day optional extension and basically going to archaeological sites close at hand. Mirek is going to bring his Unimog (some kind of army troop truck). We'll set up a black and white developing lab in one of John's weapons labs and Mirek will bring lots of weird cameras so everyone can get a feel for different equipment.

..... Now it is evening.....


Mirek wanted to go out and do some photography today so I was the tour guide. We went to two pueblitos, the Citadel and Gould Pass Ruin. We spent hours and hours at each one. One of his cameras takes about an hour to set up for a single shot! It has bellows and he pulls a black blanket over himself and the camera when he is sighting it in. He mostly did black and white, while I contented myself with my tiny digital. It was cold so the mud mostly stayed frozen. There were millions of very fresh elk and rabbit tracks. By evening, we were both wishing we had doubled up on socks, but I had Chica riding on my feet in his red Izuzu so my boots have dried out and life was okay. Mirek changed out of his boots as soon as we got back and then he started taking on some calories as the cold had really pulled his energy level down. When I came in from feeding the horses, he was standing in front of the cold woodstove, gulping down ramen noodles, unable to muster the energy to build the fire.

Here is a couple of links where you can go look at Mirek's work. Our plan is to offer the workshop for just under $800. We are considering doing several, photographing the Dinetah at most of them and photographing the wild horses of Carracas Mesa at one special event. He is such a interesting person, having followed his lenses around the world without hesitation, just as easily as he followed his lenses down Largo Canyon.

Check his UseFilm.com web gallery and then here is a link to google him.... if I knew that he photographs celebrities for a living, I would not have expected him to be such a down to earth guy.

Yrs,
JRW