Auxarczen believes that you can be rooted and still roam

It seems we left our hometown to find ourselves.

And here we are

somewhere older than our history

but still possessed by our Ozark Zen.

In Taos, roaming isn't about running away.

It's about listening for the deeper story already lived in the dust under our boots.

In the desert you must wear boots.

Just one of the lessons Taos has taught us.

The land here is an archive

& the buildings keep secrets.

The wind carries stories that we haven't heard.

Sangre de Cristo mountains captured at speed

The Ozarks hold our history,

our original identity,

our roots and footprints,

but not our whole story.

Mt. Nebo in the Ozarks

Here in this beautiful and magical place

we began to recognize pieces of ourselves

we didn't know were missing.

Reminders Dot The Landscape

Auxarczen is wandering with intention

documenting what we find,

honoring those that came before us;

adding our own small thread to this vast

and fascinating tapestry of history and art.

Collecting stories, images, and ghosts

along the roads

not always mapped.

Right where we belong.

Readying for Decent Outside of Mora, NM

San José de Gracia Church, Las Trampas New Mexico

Adobe wall Taos Pueblo

Kit Carson road hanging pepper ristras

Taos Pueblo

Kiva at Jemez historic site

Wandering with Guidance

Taos Welcome Tree

The Texture of the Sand Dunes

Water is Life

Exploring

Wandering, but in no way lost.

-Michael & Jen

Auxarczen

AUXARCZEN:THE HOUSE THAT GATHERED ITS NAMES

Why everything is now Auxarczen.

We have rebranded

not to become something else

but to become who we always were.

For a while our work lived under several different names -

GO!PRESS

JENNIFER CARTRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

PRAIRIE WISE

Each name carried a purpose.

Each did real work in the real world.

Books were published.

Images were captured.

Logos were produced.

Ideas became objects that could be held.

But, over time something became clear.

This was never separate work.

It was always one studio

one conversation

one vision.

So we gathered everything under one name.

Welcome to -

This rebranding is not about changing direction,

its about revealing the structure that always existed.

The press, the photography, and the studio

have always been connected by the same intention.

To bring meaningful, creative work

into finished form with care, clarity,

joy and presence.

This is not a reset

This is a consolidation,

a sharpening.

If you have worked with us before, you are still in the right place.

If you are just finding us now, welcome.

The doors are open.

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE REDESIGN

Introducing Walks With Words

We were commissioned to create a book cover. That entails me taking a photograph and Michael creating the graphics. When I started rolling the book's title around, waiting for inspiration, an image popped into my head. A typewriter in the desert plugged directly into the earth.

Like this -

WHAT DOES THE EARTH SAY

Or this -

PLUGGED IN

Now that I am thinking about it, I might have stolen that loose idea from Monty Python's Flying Circus and John Cleese sitting at a desk on the beach. The absurdity of that image has stuck around in the recesses of my brain.

Like this -

not my photo

Or this -

found on the internet, i didn't take this

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

As we were walking around the sand dunes looking for different locations to set the typewriter, I kept catching Michael out of the corner of my eye. So I started placing him in the frame.

Like this -

SURF'S UP

and this -

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Before long, we started a little game that I think might be unique to us. That guy in the photos became a character. So if he was a character he needed a name. Michael named him Walks With Words and we started planning shots containing him. You know, Walks With Words because it was no longer Michael. When we commit we commit. The first few pictures looked -

Like this -

LISTENING FOR THE MUSE

and this -

WAITING ON THE SUN

and this -

THE POET ROAD

Next step, some tweaking of the wardrobe. I have been trying to get Michael to buy a pair of cowboy boots for YEARS. You see, the first time I saw him walking across The Olivia Apartments lobby, he was wearing cowboy boots and he walks like Kris Kristofferson in them! So, of course boots were ordered, we needed them for a costume. Then I fitted him with my hat and the outfit was complete. The pictures came out

like this -

SITS WITH WORDS

and this -

IN HIS ELEMENT

Of course we needed a character sketch

Walks With Words

Is a

Poet

In his early 60s

He

Travels light

boots, sunglasses, questionable destinations,

and one electric typewriter.

A product of the poetic past.

He writes in arroyos, on dunes, along back roads, and next to adobes.

He keeps the myth of the wandering poet alive

with electricity fueled by the earth.

We needed the character sketch because how else would we know how he would pose in pictures?

Like this -

HOME

and this -

WALKS WITH WORDS

If you happen to see him typing into the wind somewhere, out on the road, just wave and pass on by,

he's hardly at work.