A Sense of Mission: Historic Churches of the Southwest

A Sense of Mission: Historic Churches of the Southwest is a photographic pilgrimage through the adobe missions and village chapels of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. David Wakely's photographs capture carved doorways, painted reredos, and santos-filled interiors with a reverence for light and texture, while Thomas A. Drain's text traces the layered Spanish, Mexican, and Pueblo history embedded in these enduring sanctuaries.

Published by Chronicle Books of San Francisco, the volume opens with a foreword by N. Scott Momaday, the Kiowa writer and Pulitzer Prize winner whose presence roots the book firmly in Native and Southwestern literary tradition. The cover image of a New Mexican mission interior, with its hand-built altar and tin nichos, signals the intimate, place-bound spirit of the project. This documented copy, with its pen-and-ink mission drawing and clean dust jacket, makes a fine companion for anyone drawn to the sacred architecture of the region.