Santa Fe has always felt like a gift. Having come here later in life, most everything about this city speaks beautifully and harmoniously. Those of us who live here know how fortunate we are to call Santa Fe home.

Photography is an editing process. The world goes on around you and time is continuous. Out of that you choose one rectangle in one moment for your photo. Santa Fe is easier to photograph than many places because of its beauty. The great gift of having spent more than 50 years as a professional photographer is that it taught me to really see what’s before my eyes.

I carried the camera with me pretty much all the time. More often than you might imagine, I was not looking for a photograph when something perfect happened. It is exciting to have a photo appear suddenly, from what feels like out of nowhere. Some of these turned out to be among the best ones.

I spent two years taking the pictures for this book, photographing the big moments and the small ones. I am grateful I’ve gotten to see so much of what makes Santa Fe such a wondrous place.

—From the Introduction by Stuart Cohen