Old Dog Photography

Some red chiles hang out to dry in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

A few weeks back, I shot these guys along a wall in Albuquerque’s Old Town.

There’s an old expression in the southwest to the effect that as long as you have a ristra of chiles hanging outside your door, you’ll never go hungry. In part, a sort of pseudo-magical reading of this probably explains why they’re so often seen as decorative items on houses in the area. That, and the fact that they make a good dash of color on an otherwise monochromatic stucco wall.

Really, though, the expression has a more pragmatic beginning. Back in the days before refrigeration, drying was one of the few long-term ways of preserving food. A ristra of chiles would normally be accompanied by strings of garlic cloves, as well as some beef jerky. Grab some dried chile, beef, and a bit of garlic — toss it in a pot with water and boil it for a while, and you’ve got the makings of a workable stew!

I shot this picture partially as a way to help explain my childhood to “the pup,” and partially because I thought it was a fun target for a little DOF exploration.