ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CATHEDRAL BASILICA, CHRISTMAS, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO 1997
Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian  All Rights Reserved

My work as a photographer is not necessarily to record things as they are but to express through my images what it feels like to stand in a particular place at a particular time. I had decided that I wanted to make a winter picture of the cathedral and tried several times, only to be foiled by too little snow, wind blowing the snow off the trees, or automobiles parked at the parking meters in front of the building. By sheer luck, it happened that the nearby hotel, La Fonda, was doing major renovation work and had closed off the street. This was my chance. I set up my camera and waited for just a little more light.  Suddenly, the sawhorses blocking the streets were pulled away, and in drove the construction crew. They jumped out with their coffee and started setting up their gear, which included a large crane that they were going to move right in front of the cathedral. Maybe it was something about the cathedral itself, standing so imposing and still under its faint blanket of snow.

Maybe it was just the peacefulness of this early morning. But I looked at them and they looked at me, and they held off moving the crane into place until I had finished. This is the photograph I made.