The Cottonwoods—One through Seven

Cottonwood No. 7, (for Paul Cousins), Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico 2020. Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian

Every Autumn, for about as long as I can remember, I have made a pilgrimage to this grove of Cottonwood trees just outside of Santa Fe to check up on them. I think they look particularly beautiful at this time of year when their leaves change from the shades of green of summer to the beautiful vibrant yellows of autumn. They are amazing to behold.

On most visits I make their portrait with my camera or my iPhone. A few of my pictures have come out particularly well and become part of a portfolio—a kind of extended portrait of sorts. Others are simply pictures I made to mark the occasion of my visit. The newest photograph, the color image above, came out particularly well and has been added to the portfolio. I call it Cottonwood No. 7, the number referring to the seventh image in this portfolio of photographs. In 1996 I began naming these various Cottonwood portraits after important people in my life. Cottonwood No. 5 was made just a few days before the birth of our daughter Rebekkah and so that photograph carries her name in the title. Cottonwood No. 6 is known as “Victor’s Cottonwood,” in memory of my friend Victor Scherzinger who loved Cottonwood trees as much as I do and founded a printing company he named after them. And now Cottonwood No. 7 joins this collection of images. I have named it after Paul Cousins, my adopted uncle who we bid farewell to earlier this year. He had a profound and joyous effect on my life and the lives of everyone who knew him.

Cottonwood Trees No. 6 (for Victor Scherzinger), Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico 2014.
Photograph by Craig Varjabedian

Cottonwood Trees No. 5 (for Rebekkah), Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico 1996

I love the notion of extended portraits. Ira Current was a professor I knew while I was a graduate student at the Rochester Institute of Technology years ago. Among his many images, he made yearly photographs of himself and his daughter on the front porch of their home over many years. It is fascinating to view the passage of time in the photographs as Ira's daughter grew and changed and Professor Current changed as well. As I look at this body of Cottonwood pictures, I notice small changes to my Cottonwood friends as some limbs grow and others change shape and sometimes fall away in response, I suspect, to time, availability of water and old age. It is fascinating to see how time affects these magnificent beings. I wrote in detail about making this photograph (along with twenty-three other pictures) in my book Four & Twenty Photographs: Stories from Behind the Lens. (University of New Mexico Press, 2007)

Cottonwood No. 4, Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico c.1995. Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian

A few years back, I did a limited edition book to help raise money for Heifer International titled The Eloquence of Trees with author Jaima Chevalier. In her thoughtful essay for that book she writes,

These images of light falling on trees are made so that each instance conjures up that aura of awakening experienced when something happens for the first time; the impression of newness that leaves an imprint; that sensation, sacred in its measure, that you are the first to ever feel these things, and that now that you have captured this sight, no one to follow you will ever come as close as you did to revel in the wondering: the awe of an undiscovered meadow, to encircle the tree, to carve your marking, marking time as if to say 'we were young once and were the only ones to happen upon this wood.'

Cottonwood No. 3, Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico c.1993. Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian

Fortunately this extended portrait series is far from over. I visited “my” Cottonwood friends recently to check up on them and make the photograph you see above. As expected they put on a magnificent show emblazoned in luminous yellows. It was a wonderful reunion and I am pleased to have enjoyed with them the magnificent clear blue sky and the setting sun of that day.

Cottonwood No. 2, Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico c.1991. Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian

Cottonwood No. 1, Autumn, Nr. Santa Fe, New Mexico 1988. Photograph by ©Craig Varjabedian

I anticipate making this pilgrimage to visit them in the autumns of years to come—the Good Lord willing. Their beauty continues to beguile and bring sustenance to my life. I take heart in knowing that they are alive and well and living in this world.

Making Cottonwood Tree No. 7, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2020. Photograph by C.L. Lane