“Route 66” by Ernst Haas, 1969.

“Route 66 Orange” by Bruce Welton, 2017.

A few days ago, a friend on Facebook living in the South posted a famous photo to share with his local friends a picture about the place where he grew up. The photo, one I’ve stumbled across here and there over the years, always makes me stop and look at it when I see it again.

The photo, called “Route 66”, was taken by Ernst Gaas (1921-1986) in 1969, and it is a look east on Central Avenue, near the Central-Carlisle intersection, in Albuquerque.

Gaas, an Austrian-born photojournalist and creative photographer who elevated color photography as an artistic medium, traveled all over the world in his work, and his photos were regularly and prominently found in Life and Vogue, among other important periodicals of his day. In 1962, Gass’ work was important enough to be the first exhibition of color photography by one person at New York’s MMA. And somehow, in his travels, he ended up in the Duke City to capture that image.

I mentioned to my friend that I also liked that image a lot, and he being away from Albuquerque for some time, mentioned he wondered what that view looked like now.

“I’ll let you know on Wednesday.”

Today I brought my camera with me to work, and after I got off, I visited the intersection, decked out in orange cones as a fruit of the ART Project.

The First National Bank building is steadfast. So is the mountain.

And so is the MOTEL sign on the right side of Central.

My image isn’t quite as spellbinding as Haas’s, but it does convey change.