Tag Archives: catholic

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Church, Storm Sky

Image April 2, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The town of Trona, near Death Valley, can feel like a place that is dying. A large factory operates in the town, extracting minerals from the giant dry lake in Searles Valley. I have passed through for years, and the number of abandoned and boarded-up homes and businesses has increased. This intriguing church sits along the highway, wedged between the town and the dry lake.

The church has fascinated me since I first saw it many years ago. I have never seen people there or even a car parked in the gravel parking lot. It is one of the least aesthetic Catholic Churches I have ever seen, looking entirely functional and standing implacably in this rough landscape. On the day I photographed it the wind was blowing and storm clouds had gathered over the distant Panamint Mountains.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

St. Madeleine Church, Trona

April 12, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The stark architecture of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Catholic Church, Trona, California.

I have a bit of history with the California town of Trona, but it has mostly been superficial. I may need to consider changing that. The town is in the far reaches of San Bernardino County, in the desert region between Ridgecrest, California and Death Valley National Park. The entire reason I even know of the place is that it is on the route that I almost always follow into the park. The town has roots that go back to the 1800s, and it seems to be supported almost entirely by the mining/extraction operations that go on there. To this outside, Trona has that utilitarian, dusty, sad, potential ghost town look of so many remote Western towns. I’m sure that some of that impression is the result of my own ignorance, but still…

I’ve passed through Trona annually for about two decades. However I rarely stop, mostly because Trona is either the last step on a very long drive to Death Valley (and I just want to get to DEVA and get to work without delay) or the first step on the long drive home (and I feel little need to stop yet). There isn’t much there for travelers — a drive-in, a restaurant on a side street, a market, a gas station or two. However, with each visit the feeling grows that there is something worth looking at and photographing here, especially in an increasingly urbanized age where fewer people have any experience with such places. So this time, on the way out of the park, we paused briefly and drove around just a bit. I noticed things that I have missed before. (For example, not all of the homes here are abandoned or unloved.) Our final stop before moving on was the parking area next to the St. Madeleine Church. In fact, this was one of the features that first suggested photography here to me some years ago, even though I had not previously stopped. It is a remarkable building, and its brutalist concrete construction and unadorned square shape somehow seem appropriate in this stark desert landscape.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Salzburg Cathedral

September 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Salzburg Cathedral, in the city of Salzburg, Austria

While we stayed in the Schönau am Königssee area of Bavaria, we were very close to the AUstrian border and to the city of Salzburg. In fact, we ended up there on parts of at least four days during our week in Bavaria. Our train arrived at and departed from Salzburg, and on two other days we found ourselves in the area for various reasons. Of course, with our music backgrounds, neither Patty nor I could pass up the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Mozart – though we managed to resist the temptations of virtually all of the Mozart-focused tourist attractions, only taking time to walk past the building where he was supposedly born and then looking at but ultimately not purchasing any of the ubiquitous mozartkugeln, including the version that is supposedly “only available in Salzburg.” On the other hand, we were unable to resist the Salzburg “coffee culture,” which we enjoyed on more than one occasion!

The spectacular Salzburg Cathedral dominates, even in a city with many spectacular things. (If you look closely, you can spot a couple of the other church spires in this photograph.) The interior is, to my eye, astonishing, and I spent a good amount of time inside just standing and staring at the structure, the decoration, and the light. I made a few photographs there, too. It turned out that just the right viewpoint for this exterior view – in more than one way – was from a hillside terrace restaurant that we visited twice, sitting outdoors and overlooking Salzburg as we had late lunch.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Saint Patrick’s Church

July 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of walls, windows, and roof lines of the side of Saint Patrick’s Church, San Francisco.

I don’t know the full history of this church in downtown San Francisco, but I do know that it is visually interesting. It has the appearance of an old cathedral, with the emphasis on old. Parts of the structure appear to be made of reinforced concrete, parts of brick, and a few sections of newer construction. Bits and pieces of all of that appear in this photograph, with some rather old and weathered materials in much of the structure, but with a much more modern-looking outbuilding at lower right.

While there is a large park (Yerba Buena Park) right across the street, much of the other surrounding architecture is quite modern for the most part. Most striking is the deep blue cubic structure of the Contemporary Jewish Museum right next door, but all around much taller and vastly more modern buildings are found. (Some of the light filling the shadows in this photograph is reflected from those buildings.)

I think that this photograph has a lot in common with a number of my photographs of mountains, especially the Sierra Nevada. In fact, I don’t think it is too hard to find parallels to some of the recent photographs of Mount Conness towering above the shorter Polly, Pywiack, and Medlicott Domes near Tenaya Lake along Tioga Pass Road.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.