Most people will recognize the Ansel Adams photo known as “Moonrise Over Hernandez, New Mexico” even if they don’t know its title.

Taken around four in the afternoon on October 31, 1941, the black and white photograph depicts a full moon rising over a small New Mexican town, about half way between Taos and Santa Fe. The sun has not completely fallen below the horizon and its last rays drop a narrow sliver of light across the town and most notably over the cemetery.

Even today that section of New Mexico is wide open, the towns are mostly small, and the vistas from the roads and highways are sweeping.

On a recent trip to New Mexico I began thinking about the photo and wondered where Hernandez was - anyway? Was I close? Could I find the spot where Adams stood and re-create the frame if not the light?

I pulled over and called up Hernandez on my map. As it turns out, I planned to travel to Los Alamos and Taos the next day and I could easily drive through Hernandez and as a bonus, Abiquiu, the small town where Georgia O’Keefe lived during her time in New Mexico.

There are lots of stories online about the details of how Adams came across the location for his famous photo including the road he was traveling on. So, why not? The next day I took a meandering route toward Taos that took me through Hernandez.

I won’t keep you in suspense. There is no great payoff here. I was on the right road, I could see Hernandez in the distance, but I could not find - in the time I gave myself to do so - the exact spot where Adams may have stood to capture the shot. I did find other scenes that carry a few of the markers of “Moonrise.” And maybe that’s the way it should be.

If anyone can replicate “Moonrise” at any time then its value as a work of art would be diminished.

The point is I tried. The point is nearly eighty years later the work cannot be easily repeated by just anyone passing through with a camera. The point is, for a few hours at least, I was traveling in the footsteps of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keefe and many others who have found New Mexico a special place worth sharing with the perspective of an artist.

Wandering Through History