Ode to a mountain
A duo pay a heartfelt tribute to Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountain.
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Prickly pear cactus offers a desert approach to Sandia as cottonwoods begin an autumn transition.
David Muench -
Frosted pines with earth shadow and moonrise in 2011.
David Muench -
Low clouds lay along the Sandia Mountains after a light snow fall.
David Muench -
Looking out over Albuquerque at sunset from Sandia's crest in 2007.
David Muench -
Light pours through a November storm in the Rio Grande Valley.
David Muench -
Sandhill cranes in a field along the Rio Grande Bosque.
David Muench -
A frosted Douglas fir along Sandia's west rim.
David Muench -
A January sunrise from Sandia.
David Muench -
The last winter sunlight wanes from Sandia's crest line.
David Muench
“Sandia is an island in the sky, an oasis of the North rising out of the desert,” writes Ruth Rudner in her tribute to the mountain that defines Albuquerque, New Mexico’s skyline. In Sandia: Seasons of a Mountain, Rudner traces the mountain’s longer seasons, exploring its deep importance to the area’s Indigenous culture as well as discovering the more recent debates over balancing conservation with recreation and development.
While Rudner unwinds the history of the mountain in words, her husband, photographer David Muench, turns his lens on the annual passage of time. Photographs spanning decades reveal the many faces of Sandia. Autumn’s glowing aspens give way to winter’s snow-burdened firs. Then the mountain sheds its winter coat to reveal the cactus blooms of spring and the wildflower gardens of summer.
Through images and words, Muench and Rudner take a long, loving look at the mountain that looms large over the desert landscape.
David Muench and Ruth Rudner
104 pages, large-format: $34.95.
University of New Mexico Press, 2018.