As with "Echo", this shot works because of the shock of the blue trim against the adobe buildings. But it goes well beyond "Echo" in also finding, as you call it, the "essence" of this place. Building piled on building, rising up and beyond the frame of the picture, the Taos Pueblo seems to climb to the heavens. And that, no doubt, was the intention of its builders. Your frame is the key here -- no sky is shown, and because of that, these buildings know no end.
