White House Ruins, April 6, 2006. The late morning light is coming from an angle that emphasizes the texture and the shape of the rock face. The effect would be lost if the light were coming "over your right shoulder" the way the Kodak handbook always tells you!

One Hundred Years Of Photography at White House Ruins

If you plan to motor west, add a side-trip to Canyon de Chelly, located in Arizona's remote northeast corner. For photographers, Canyon de Chelly has more variety and accessibility than nearby Grand Canyon. If you like some history mixed in with your scenery, de Chelly has more of that too.

  The first European visitors arrived in the canyon in 1849: Lieutenant James Harvey Simpson and a squad of soldiers looking for renegade Navaho. One of the soldiers, Richard H. Kern, made the first sketches of the place.
 
  The camera guys have been coming here since 1873:  Timothy O'Sullivan, followed by John K. Hillers (1881), Ben Wittich, and A. G. Vroman (1903), Edward Curtis and Roland Reed (1904), and Ansel Adams (1942). Their most memorable shots in the canyon were made from virtually the same angle and of the same subject, the pueblo ruins called "The White House", located in a large cliff alcove deep in the canyon. Above the ruins, the cliff soars another 750-1000 feet into the sky. Vertical stains caused by centuries of runoff and mineral deposits streak its face.

  Native Americans have lived in the canyon for a thousand years. Today, the place is the home of the Navaho, who tend their crops on small, scattered parcels of land on the canyon floor. Before the Navaho, the Anasazi, "the Ancient Ones", built clay brick villages in rocky recesses up on the canyon walls for security. In the twelfth century, the Ancient Ones disappeared --forced out, probably, by drought. Their homes survive, and the canyon is today a National Monument.

  The cliff dwellings can be approached and photographed. A good road follows the canyon rim, with a dozen areas where you can park and look down into the canyon and into history. For those so inclined, the canyon bottom can be toured by chartered jeep, allowing a close examination of the ruins. And for those more athletically inclined, you can park your car and walk down to the river and to the spot where Adams, O'Sullivan and the others set up their tripods and shot the buildings and the soaring cliff of White House Ruin.

  At the base of the cliff are some clay brick ruins that served the Anasazi as a settlement. They are located on the floor of the canyon --with the "safe" refuge in the rock cavity a hundred feet above. One of the buildings, a ruined tower, was apparently an enclosure for ladders leading up to the alcove.

  Somebody a thousand years ago had gone to a lot of trouble to build what clearly was a fort and an enclave. Once the ladders had been pulled up, a dozen men *or women!*could easily defend themselves from hundreds of raiders or vandals! What sad, unwritten stories are told by these ruins? What tragic event made them necessary?

  The light for photography at White House Ruin is best in the late morning as the sun comes around the curve of the canyon walls onto the old buildings, especially those up in the alcove. In the afternoon, the light is still good, but early evening finds the cliff in the shade once again. The face of the cliff bulges * curved top and bottom like a billowing sail, so the sunlight emphasizes the texture of the rock for most of the day.

  The Park Service has erected a fence around the lower ruins to keep climbers off. It is a challenge to make photographs here that do not show the fence. Putting a tree or bush in the foreground helps. Try shooting from across the river using a wide angle lens; the fence will be tiny --as will the ruins, an effect that emphasizes the height of the cliff. Don't show any of the sky in your frame; the effect of size will be lost. 

  Adams recommends a blue filter to give more illumination to the details in the shadowy alcove. Better to use a polarizer instead to kill some of the glare on the face of the cliff.

  Be sure to use a tripod. The shots you make here will be among your favorites, with your best enlargement hanging on the darkroom wall. You will want that enlargement to be sharp! 

  And carry a canteen. You'll be glad to have the extra water on your walk out. It's all uphill!