McDonald Ranch Toddler T-Shirt

Remains of an ore crusher at the American Mine in Old Hachita, New Mexico. Photo by Lloyd Summer, courtesy Ghosts of the Southline.
Remains of an ore crusher at the American Mine in Old Hachita, New Mexico. Photo by Lloyd Summer, courtesy Ghosts of the Southline.

Driving north through the almost ghost town of Hachita, I saw and photographed this unique sign and entrance gate to the McDonald Ranch. Found in the Little Hatchet Mountains of New Mexico, at the entrance to the bootheel of southwestern New Mexico, the original town of Hachita was settled around 1875 as a mining camp. The mountains supplied the camp with more than just silver and copper, it would also supply its name, which is Spanish for “little hatchet”.

Photography, to me, involves seeing the light and capturing the moment: the colorful illumination in the sky just before sunrise; bright sunlight dancing on the bubbling current, the glint in the eye of a mockingbird, soft reflected light caressing the face of a child, the dynamic reflection of the setting sun on the beach. As a photographer, I use my camera to share with others my vision of the world. I have been making photographs for as long as I can remember. From images of nature and my surroundings growing up in northern Germany, to photo-journalism in Hamburg, Germany. I always gravitated toward a career in photography. Immigrating to the United States in the 1970s, I built a reputation in portrait photography, and ran a...