Saturday, March 03, 2001

I fully intended to focus (pardon the pun) on getting some photos for Lane's Day in the Life project. I had no intentions of wandering off through another cemetery, it was an accident, I swear! Reid says that photographers are drawn to cemeteries like a moth to a candle flame. I guess he's right on that one.

I was playing chauffeur, taking my wife to several appointments around town, when I found myself in the heart of Towson, a growing business section just north of Baltimore. Beneath the wall of a high rise office building, next door neighbor to a massive mall and a stone's throw from some of the most congested traffic in Maryland was an oasis of quiet.

Walking through the narrow entrance gate of Prospect Hill Cemetery, strolling under the tall pines along the roadway through this small cemetery, I first felt a bit let down. There were no statues, no massive ornate carvings, none of the features that I have come to take for granted on entering an old cemetery. Just plain old tombstones.

Just plain old tombstones...each with a story to tell if I would take the time to look and listen. Slowing my pace, taking a closer look, I searched for the key to the secrets hidden here. The simple stones had small carvings, softly spoken testaments to the carver's skills and a statement of the lives these memorials represented. These were not the tombs of the rich, the graves of the powerful politicians. They were graves of folk like us, perhaps. Neither needing nor wanting a grand memorial, just a quiet story of their existence here on earth.

A small bronze plaque, six inches high at most, the aged green patina accentuating its heart shape against the brown earth had cast into its surface a minimalist message.
Name.
Date of death.
Date of birth... February 14th.

One token of love, an eternal Valentine.
8:42 PM ::link::

Sufi mystical poetry seems to be on the rise, with a fine example at End the War on Freedom.
10:52 AM ::link::

Friday, March 02, 2001

With the aim of returning a sense of individuality and celebration in the marking of our passing, a group of artists are staging an exhibition in London featuring glow in the dark coffins, balloons to catch a dying breath and do it yourself coffins made from fruit boxes. Dead - An End to Conveyor Belt Funerals, is being organized by John Fox, who said in an interview with the Guardian Unlimited, "If people thought about their own death a little more, I don't think they would bother with much of the consumerist rubbish that clutters up our lives now."
11:12 PM ::link::

There's been a flurry of discussion on the Grave-L list about what to tell your friends about this admittedly strange little hobby and fascination with graveyards and tombstones. If I can get past the raised eyebrows and there's time for a more lengthy explanation, a look at my photos seems to help in persuading them that I have not become enamored of death but rather that I am looking for beauty in an unusual place.

Death is a powerful token, bringing thoughts of dread and decay. I am trying to harness the power of the emotions that it summons and redirect them towards beauty and life. In combining the opposites, looking for life and love in the Grim Reaper's playground, I am seeking a balance.

I don't feel that I have reached it yet. I'm not sure how to reach it or even if it is there at all. The search wanders in new directions, each turn in the path revealing another way to travel. Doubts and happy surprises are my companions on this journey. I keep looking, hoping to one day be able to truly see.
2:03 PM ::link::

I'll be the first to admit that my mind is probably a little twisted. I can't blame it all on the fact that I start each morning by reading the Steven Wright Quote of the Day but it seems to help.

When I was a little kid we had a sand box.
It was a quicksand box.
I was an only child....eventually.
-Steven Wright
6:39 AM ::link::

Thursday, March 01, 2001

Came home from work to find that my ISP has fixed the troubles with getting my email. They also managed to find a new way to keep me from sending email. Grrr. So, if I don't reply to you immediately, I am not being intentionally rude, ignoring you, or pissed off at you for some reason. Really.

I'm in a pretty good mood despite the email fiasco, because snail mail came through like a champ. Yes!! The KX arrived!!

Forgive me if I gush a bit over 25 year old technology. This camera is a machine... as in mechanical. The only electronics are in the light meter. The batteries can die completely and I can still snap away as long as I have film. The controls are well thought out and everything you need to adjust to control the exposure falls immediately to hand. It's got a few nice features, such as Depth of Field preview and mirror lockup. I'm hoping that being able to lock the mirror prior to making a long exposure will add just a hint more sharpness to my pinhole pictures.

I've yet to take a picture with it but I think I'm going to like the experience.
8:12 PM ::link::

Patti's trying so hard to be a Big Girl but at times like this we all feel small and powerless. Say a prayer, if that's your way, or just send a good thought and some love. Be a part of her mosaic.
8:06 AM ::link::

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Out of this world beauty, the wonderful gems of the Hubble Heritage Project features refined pictures from one heck of a telephoto lens.
10:33 PM ::link::

Haiku Hacks have an additional two weeks to get in on Randy's Haiku Contest. It's fun, it's easy and you can be funny, philosophical, or poetic, all in seventeen syllables.

Pictures of tombstones.
Beauty in an old graveyard.
Nice, but is it art?

See, nothing to it! Now go send Randy some about his site.
7:23 PM ::link::

Lomography is getting some more attention. I've checked some of the specs on the camera and its simplicity is quite charming, though the willy-nilly photographic style advocated by its fans may not be for every one. The "shoot from the hip" method may well yield some interesting images but I prefer a slower and more deliberate assessment of a subject, with some forethought to what is going to end up on the film.

Or am I just being a pretentious old fart? ;-)
2:51 PM ::link::

Many thanks to Kristina for two bits of news...
There's mention of a graveyard artist in the New Yorker. Lisa Ruyter does paintings of graveyards based on snapshots taken by the artist in Paris, London, Arizona, and Vermont. No online images of the paintings. :-(

and my ISP has apparently screwed up e-mail... again... so,if you have filled out the contact form or e-mailed me in the past 24 hours, it probably got "disappeared." Until they get things straight, I've switched mail forwarding so that mail addressed to coldmarble@dgbn.com will reach my "spare, emergency backup" addie.
2:41 PM ::link::

The last day of February brought the first signs of Spring's approach.
Crocuses blooming in the garden this morning.
The brave bright purple poking through the sunwarmed earth has me looking forward to new adventures and projects.

I know that more infrared work is a must, as soon as there are enough leaves to give that wild "wood" effect. New cemeteries to visit and re-explorations of old ones are ahead, as well. Emulsion transfer is a must do soon item. Contemplating trying some figure studies, probably with infrared, though I'm not sure if or how they'd fit this site.

What do you think... any ideas that you'd like explored?
12:44 PM ::link::

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

Ever run across writing that masquerades as prose but has a hidden poetry that can warm your heart and chill your soul in fewer words than you could imagine?
No?
Then go here.
10:15 PM ::link::

The Village Cemetery offers a peek into the past of Hinesburg, Vermont with an examination of who is buried there... and who isn't.
9:11 PM ::link::

I was a bit disappointed with a look at the Spring lineup of digital cameras. Maybe it was because this article focused more on point and shoot consumer level offerings, although the only "advances" seemed to be using different batteries and a little improvement in storage. Where are the low priced, high resolution, interchangeable lens, SLR digitals? Or would I be better off just waiting for flying cars?
8:56 PM ::link::

I'm looking forward to participating in Lane's "Day in the Life" project for a couple of reasons.

It will provide a reason/excuse to try my hand at a wider variety of photographic subjects. Don't get me wrong, here. Cemeteries are still my main focus and I'll continue to be gathering new and hopefully better photos of them. It's just that there is a unique and exciting challenge in the DITL project to try to portray the beauty and wonder in the scenes that I see everyday, a challenge to myself to open my eyes and my mind and try to see it all again for the first time.

It's going to be a fun exercise to look and see with increased intensity all the common objects that surround me every day. It will be a creative exercise to try to capture the mundane in a way that won't be a one-way ticket to snoozeland.

The project will also allow me to thoroughly test the workings of the Pentax KX body that I just picked up on ebay. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of this classic and hoping for an improvement in my photographs with the need to make all the decisions, rather than being dependent on the camera to "think" for me.

I've tried to be aware of the exposure settings used by my photographic companion of the past 20 years, a Pentax ME. I've learned to "lie" to the camera fairly well when the need arises to bypass its little brain and alter the exposure for a certain effect. It's been a good little camera and I've learned a lot with it.

Could I have gone for a new wonderbox with umpteen functions and LCD displays of everything from shutter speed to relative humidity? Maybe I'm too simple a guy but as an article on old SLRs in photo.net put it, three things affect the picture that you get on film: shutter speed, aperture and focus. Going with an old fully manual camera puts all three directly under my control. I can't get lazy and let the camera decide what to do. Brain must be engaged prior to operating shutter release.

I'm hoping this will be a good thing.
11:36 AM ::link::

I love stumbling across a weblog as eclectic and interesting as Reutellog. Space, art, politics, photography, and of course, the occasional cemetery.
9:00 AM ::link::

Monday, February 26, 2001

25 volunteers labored last week in a community effort to restore the Harper Cemetery in Elk, Texas. As is often the case with older cmeteries in this country, it is up to volunteer cemetery associations to rescue forgotten and run-down cemeteries. One organization that was helpful in this particular effort was Save Texas Cemeteries, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of Texas graveyards.
12:38 PM ::link::

Lane has a fun new Day in the Life project underway. She says that you're welcome to jump in and play, all you need is a camera.
Hhhmm... might have one of those around here somewhere.
11:37 AM ::link::

Sunday, February 25, 2001

Courtesy of the good folks on the Grave-L list, a site with explanations of Victorian mourning jewelry and funeral customs.
8:05 PM ::link::

There are some images that cannot be captured on film because they exist only in the mind of the creator.

Becca sent me a sneak preview of her latest work, "Longing", just added to her gallery today. Her works have shown a progression in skill and talent, which she attributes to her new graphics tablet. I say she's being overly modest.

One of the finest minds and talents in fantasy art is Michael Whelan. His worlds flow onto the canvas with a realism and beauty that will leave you wandering the halls of his gallery for hours.
Go ... enjoy!
7:48 PM ::link::

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