Adam Trahan: Rock Art

I am taken back in time each day I spend photographing and studying the petroglyphs of the area I live in. Within a 10 minute drive is the S'edav Va'aki Museum. A little further down the road is Tempe Butte. South Mountain is 20 minutes away and the rock art of Piedras Grande and the Desert Classic Trail. There are many rock art sites within South Mountain, the largest municipal park in the United States.

I often find myself wondering about the people that created the petroglyphs. Looking out over Phoenix, one of the largest cities in America, the buildings and roads disappear. I begin to imagine pueblos, free form fields connected by hand dug canals and the green of squash, beans and corn. I look over and there is a Hohokam man tapping out a picture on a desert varnished rock. His skin is tan and his long black hair covers his shoulders and back. He turns and looks at me and smiles…

Finding and photographing rock art is one of my passions.
Even the most basic stick figure man or spiral is important to me. There are other rock art hunters too. Our stories are similar but where I seem to differ is the way I look at rock art. ALL of it is important. The Petrified National Forest, a three hour drive Northeast is an area that was once inhabited hundreds, a thousand and more years ago. There are ancient Pueblos there and subsequent rock art or Tapamveni as the Hopi call it are often quite detailed and complex yet I enjoy finding and capturing even the most simple and basic of rock art sites. I prefer the less popular sites as those are the places that aren’t popular and often reported on. Those are the sites that I typically get to discover for myself. Not much in the way of previewing or preconceived ideas. These sites are “new to me” personal discovery and this is where I get to develop my own view of the rock art found within.

I’m learning about the indigenous peoples of the desert Southwest. They are the original inhabitants of the land, where they lived, where they moved to over the course of time. I try to understand where their current and modern descendants are from. My photography and interest has lead me to further study. Seeing the destruction by vandalism, the artifact thieves, the pot hunters, the illegal and more importantly immoral stealing of antiquities has lead me to further study of how to research, photograph and understand what to do when I am in these areas.

I am the photographer for the Phoenix chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society.

At 65 and I have my own family tree that I can trace back a hundred years, about four generations but I’m not so interested in the modern history. The politics of America and how it came to be has crushed the interest out of investigating the migration and in habitation of America. This invasion forced the people that lived here for thousands of years away from their home. The indigenous were forced on to reservations, we interred their children forcing them to assimilate into a very different way of life. The road just North of my home, Indian School road is an everyday stark reminder of this travesty.

As a photographer with an interest in archeology, I enjoy the study and photography of rock art of indigenous peoples. My travels are an escape from the modern contrivance of current times living in America. My interest in the ancient people of this land reminds me of how young modern America really is.

Thank you for visiting.