2005 Workshop #2
Real de Catorce and Mineral de Pozos, Mexico

June 12-18 2005

Photography Instructor: Geoff Winningha

After meeting at the Leon/Guanajuato airport at noon on June 12, the group will depart immediately to drive approximately five hours into the high desert terrain of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. Thirty miles off the highway, up a 16th century cobblestone road, we will pass through a two-mile tunnel in the Sierra de Catorce mountain and emerge in the ancient mining town of Real de Catorce.

The town, which is hidden away on the far side of the mountain, once possessed the largest gold mines in all of Mexico. Today, it is a waking dream. At an altitude of over 8,000 feet, Real de Catorce consists of street after street of ancient adobe buildings, many of them in ruins from centuries of neglect. Other buildings have been restored as homes or shops, and even a couple of hotels, one featuring a superb Italian restaurant. The dominant sense of the place is of the past, frozen in time. There are two sixteenth-century churches in Catorce, their walls covered with ancient murals and retablos, folk paintings attesting to miracles of the local saints. Horses are available for rides into the surrounding mountains, but the surreal streets of Real de Catorce itself – blazing in the crystal mountain sunlight – will be more than enough to occupy photographers and artists for three days.

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