Ann McMahon unveils three photo canvases

Article and photos by Mary Alice Murphy

On Saturday, Aug. 6, at a Silver City Museum Brown Bag Lunch, Silver City photographer Ann McMahon talked about photo canvases that she is creating from her photos of "The Disappearing Mining Landscape of Grant County."

She is building a portfolio of large canvases for a photography exhibit at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry in Colorado Springs, Colo., next fall, debuting on Sept. 14, 2017.

"My portfolio focuses on the 19 mining districts of Grant County," McMahon said. "I'm doing this because no local entity is charged with preserving Grant County's mining history, I'm sad to say.

"Silver City is here because of mining," she said. "George Hearst made his money in New Mexico and Grant County in mining."

McMahon noted that mining created the narrow-gauge railroad, and mining was a major labor movement.

Dave Menzie, geologist, who has been working with McMahon to identify some of the places she will photograph, said three-quarters of the value of all metals produced in New Mexico came out of Grant County. "Santa Rita Mine has been here for more than 200 years." He said Chloride Flats is the first place that silver was found in the county. New Mexico Tech has mineral specimens from the site. Menzie will also speak at the Colorado Springs exhibit

"Terry Humble is also a mentor of mine on this project," McMahon said. "Without him and his father, we would have lost a lot of the local mining history. He is maintaining old tapes from old-timers. I did an article with him, with my images, for Desert Exposure."

She showed the photo of the interior of a mining structure from the Combination Mine in the Central Mining District. "Unfortunately, I've found no place that hasn't been vandalized."

Another collaborator on her project is Andrew Lindlof, a geologist who collects rocks and minerals. His work will be part of the Colorado Springs mining museum exhibit.

In the audience at the talk was Vic Topmiller Jr., who also has helped McMahon in her search for mining history. He has been instrumental in getting access to private holdings for her to take photos.

McMahon also talked about the techniques she uses when taking and processing her photographic files. In the interior photo, she brought in several flashes to illuminate parts of the machinery.

"This photograph shows you things that it would be hard to see without the digital image," McMahon said. "I'm a big fan of digital. It gives me total control in Photoshop over what would have been done in a darkroom years ago. Digital also gets more detail than film ever did."

She explained that processing the photos for exhibition in museums requires using a color balance for the lights that will shine on the photos.

"I make an image as real as possible, but I want you to see the details," McMahon said. "I print it to canvas. It takes a minimum of three days, because the canvas has to dry and cureG