2016 Taos New Mexico meets Heather Lynn Sparrow

Dear Taos,

  It is my 22nd year here.  When I first moved to Taos, with my daughter Saffron and my lover Brendan Curran, from Wisconsin, I was 20, and a recovering Catholic.  In my first year of college, I read Be Here Now, Chop Wood Carry Water, and The Findhorn Garden.  These books changed my life forever and created a longing for me to be near people who also found this lifestyle appealing. 

 

I never lived anywhere buildings were made of mud. The idea of a home made entirely of our sacred earth, at a cost that required primarily our hard work, was my ticket to mortgage free existence. Our modernday homesteading project was well underway.  I found an apartment in Ranchos De Taos next to the San Francisco de Assisi Mission, a National Historic Landmark, the Spanish Colonial San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church is a well-preserved adobe building in the heart of the community at the center plaza of the Ranchos de Taos Historic District. Because of its imposing form and sculpted body, the church is a favorite subject for artists. Ansel Adams photographed the church for his Taos Pueblo art book and Georgia O’Keeffe painted a series of perspectives of the church. O’Keeffe once described it as “one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States by the early Spaniards.” In most works, these artists favored the view of the back of the church, with its smoothly sculpted adobe beehive buttresses. The beautiful colonial-era church continues to attract artists and the Ranchos de Taos plaza is home to several galleries.

  The Spanish colonists were well established in New Mexico by the 18th century, a period when Spain was at the height of its imperial power in North America. Around this time, civilian Spanish and Mexican families began to settle permanently in Ranchos de Taos, in northern New Mexico. By the mid-18th century, this Catholic agricultural village founded the San Francisco de Assisi Mission. The Franciscans supervised the construction of the historic church between 1772 and 1816.

Ansel Adams

I was excitedly employed at Teo's coffeshop,  an outdoor coffee cart, owned by Wendy Wysong located behind the North end of the plaza, that opened out into the parking lot of the new post office. It was there I began this incredible 20 year photographic journey...

Saffron




But Don't Think You're The Only One Who Ever Worked That Magic...

I have been away... so long, when you feel the sun, you'll feel the song too.

I traveled for four months.  I can't say exactly where.  But if you go outside and face West, close your eyes...imagine...Don't think what words to use, until your standing there alone. In 16 million people... I found silence.

I ignored Facefriends and had to practice disappointing people.  My phone filled up with messages, which I solved with select all and delete.  I went back to the soil...before I sold my soul.  But I don't think I'm the only one who has worked that magic.  Tuning out, and taking time to hear our own voice is the way to sing together.

The love that I feel from Taos...cuts through the darkness.  Feathers and good thoughts.  Making offerings, strong and mysterious.  And everywhere they knew how I missed them...

 

While I was away....  I was banned from Facebook twice for showing pubic hair and nipples.  I was warned on instagram for showing a silhouette of a naked man...I knew Chanel and Prada wouldn't mind...

While I was away....

  I was banned from Facebook twice for showing pubic hair and nipples.  I was warned on instagram for showing a silhouette of a naked man...I knew Chanel and Prada wouldn't mind...

Horny.jpg


Sparrow Photography 2015 Risky in my endeavors & steadfast in my Loves

If you have been in the woods with me.  I love you.

But, where are the words?

Not in my pocket.

Not in the refrigerator

Not in my savings account.

So this is all I can give you.

Not being the maker of what I do,

but only the vessel that carries the message...

Make of it what you will.

    

 

Everyone once, once only.  Just once and no more.

And we also once.  Never again.  But this having been 

once, although only once, to have been of the earth, 

seems irrevocable. -Rilke

 

    

 

 

'Tis curious that we only believe as deep as we live.

-Emerson

    



My love winter returns to it's billet ... Photo Journal

Let's go, get up, pin back your hair...take off.  ​

for all my life's sleeplessness has woven

these words,​

then kisses.​

We have traveled so far, you & I.  Two children growing into one another.​

All the dreams...the things I said I'd do & didn't...while we were waiting...​

For The Hero that never came.  The Father we hoped for.  Nights bundled up together in plastic to stay warm.  Lives that seemed better than ours...​

Like the time I wanted to get gas heat. You reminded me how sacred the practice keeping our fire was.

Like the times we argued over who would empty the compost...or get the water. ​

I wish now, I could have said what I needed, rather than all the things that are wrong with you.

Even before you, the summer will arrive.​ 

Because love cannot always fly without resting.  Our kisses head back home where they belong.​

​

My Eldest Daughter Saffron & I

My Eldest Daughter Saffron & I

Sparrow & Trempealeau ​

Sparrow & Trempealeau ​

Tired of Prom a photo documentary

Tired of Prom a photo documentary

.....I struggle with enormous discrepancies: between the reality of motherhood and the image of it -Sally Mann

"We don't see things as they are.  We see things as we are" -Anais Nin

One of my favorite photographers Sally Mann

Sally Mann (born in Lexington, Virginia, 1951) is one of America’s most renowned photographers. She has received numerous awards, including NEA, NEH, and Guggenheim Foundation grants, and her work is held by major institutions internationally. Her many books include Second Sight (1983), At Twelve (1988), Immediate Family (1992), Still Time (1994), What Remains (2003), Deep South (2005), Proud Flesh (2009), and The Flesh and the Spirit (2010). A feature film about her work, What Remains, debuted to critical acclaim in 2006. Mann is represented by Gagosian Gallery, New York and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York. She lives in Virginia.

“Few photographers of any time or place have matched Sally Mann’s steadiness of simple eyesight, her serene technical brilliance, and the clearly communicated eloquence she derives from her subjects, human and otherwise – subjects observed with an ardor that is all but indistinguishable from love.”

– Reynolds Price, TIME

1983-1985
1983-1985
I knew rooms full of ashes...​

I knew rooms full of ashes...​

inconceivably alien, it all...​

inconceivably alien, it all...​

questions that insisted.​

questions that insisted.​

The Perfect Resume

  I am revising my resume to meet the needs of my shining future.  It is very important that I am clear about my job target.  I need some power paragraphs & visual creativity.  I have also included a draft of my cover letter.​  Looking forward to some input.

LIST of WHO I might send a completed resume to:​

​Vogue . Jack White . Die Antword . W magizine . Paul Frank . American Horror . The Kills . Gigantic Hawk . Larry Gagosian . Macklemore & Ryan Lewis . Beck . Johnny Dep . Byork . Clothing Designers . Laura Flook

Heather Lynn Sparrow Resume

Heather Lynn Sparrow Resume

Cover Letter

Cover Letter

an email signature on hotmail...what an adventure!

Today I set out to add an email signature to my Hotmail account.  I wanted to include my social networks as a hyperlyink, with hand drawn clickable buttons.  It all seemed very easy, however four hours into the process...I'm still stumped. I was able to place my logo by posting it on Facebook, then copy and pasting it on to the signature editing area along with my text.  I was even able to make a clickable text link directly to my site.  What i would like to have success with, is bringing in the social network and store site buttons, and making them clickable. I even tried starting in html, then transfering to rich text, but the graphics disappear.   Can anyone help?

My Sweet Valentine...Taos New Mexico

 Love how often I loved you without seeing- without remembering you- not recognizing your glance, not knowing you, a gigantic hawk.  Or maybe I saw you imagined you.  I loved you without knowing I did.  I broke into houses to steal your likeness, and though I already knew what you were...there with me, I touched you and my life stopped, you stood before me, you took domination like a queen.   I LOVE YOU! click below to check out this song we wrote for you!

Happy Valentines Day Taos!

Happy Valentines Day Taos!

It's the End of the World as we know it...and I feel fine!

  • World Wide Lighting of the lights?

    12.21.12 10:54 pm, candles, sky lanterns (mindful of weather) LED flash, etc... your town, your city, your country, our planet, our home,

    What if the End of the World was just the beginning of a Better World where children didn't have to go to school to die.

    A Rambling for those who are interested...

    I have been so interested in flash mobs lately, the amazing joy they bring me from the beauty of collaborative work and surprise...what beauty humans can create!
    That's the media I seek out, the media that is fed to me is always so tragic and glum it is naturally hard to stay in the light and have hope for human kind, and now we have this day that is approaching, this day with such a story around it. Who can't be just a little bit curious as to what 12.21.12 will hold, if nothing supernatural what will humans do with all that energy directed on one day?
    Winter solstice has always been my favorite day because its when we turn back into the light, and assuming the world doesn't flip over on its axis all together we will once again, in the northern hemisphere return to the light.
    This is a metaphor for the greater circumstance humans have to face now. It is time for us as a human race to turn toward the light, and toward one another.
    My friends and I have been planning for a long time (weather permitting) to set off a few sky lanterns on December 21st at 10:54pm (why that time, I don't know, does everything have to be so calculated, we just like it;) to mark the end of the dark times with the beauty of light.
    As I sit here tonight it occurs to me why not invite the world to participate, and why not use the oh so available internet to do it. So consider this an invitation to the world to set a more beautiful intention, with intention, and return to the light. In honor of all the beautiful humans who have died unjustly, and there are billions, and in honor of the humans who are oppressed and violated daily, and in honor of the humans we have the capacity to become, more loving, and interconnected, more aware, and mindful, light a candle and go to the heart of your town or city, share the light with the world.
    10:54 pm

2012 What If?

Follow the light.

Follow the light.

Lisa & Chris Pregnancy

  Lisa & Chris are long time residence of Taos. We had the pleasure of shooting their Taos Wedding & 350 friends! 

  This session we focused on a new member of the family...

Lisa & Baby

Lisa & Baby

  Chris is an areal photographer, who flies over Taos Mountain, Taos Ski Vally, & the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  We traded this shoot for a ride.

Bringing the light...

Bringing the light...