Old Gravestones...Toward an improved typology through better photography...

Over the years, I have had an ambivalent attitude about cemetery photography.  I was drawn to the quiet somber solitude of old graveyards and the stories they tell, so often sad ones.  At one point I stopped taking pictures there, maybe because I was getting older and closer to the subject, but on a recent trip to Provincetown I stopped at the Old North Cemetery in Truro Mass., looking for a particular stone I remembered from years ago.  Didn't find it, but did happen to get a couple of great shots...

and I was hooked again, in fact I went so far as to begin a bit of on line research pertaining to the typology of stone carvings; winged heads, winged skulls, skulls and cross bones, trees, medusas, ... etc etc, and one thing that impressed me was the poor quality of the photos used as illustration...poorly lit, back lit, out of focus, badly shadowed, shot from above at a poor angle, too contrasty, etc etc, and it gave me the idea for a new project involving my contribution to improved illustration in the area of typology of early gravestone carving documentation , graphically anyway.  Till I came upon a certain stone in the Old North Cemetery, the sadness of which reminded me of why I stopped shooting stones altogether for many years.

I liked the image and shot the stone and only later did I actually read it and realize Mrs. Abigail Adams wife of Dr. Samuel Adams died in childbirth almost 250 years ago while her husband and family stood by helplessly as she suffered and their dreams died because there was so little they could do and for me, her stone was just some object of curiosity.  But then again, the stones are put up so people will be remembered and when was the last time anyone with any familiarity with Mrs. Adams stood in front of this stone to weep and remember.  I do think about her and am personally mindful of and thankful for the suffering we are no longer forced to endure.

I stopped the post mortums for a while after this photo.  Lately I have picked it up again here and there, and here are a few examples of my efforts which are posted mainly as an example of what a good gravestone photo should look like, especially if your interests are academic.  As I always like to say, and it seems particularly apt here, that "I don't think photography is an art, but rather the process of documenting reality artistically".

   Two of the winged skull variety at the Old North Cemetery...

And these last two are from the Old Burial Ground in Halifax Nova Scotia where they still celebrate the War of 1812, where many combatants are buried, as the reason they are not Americans!!!

And then there are these two winged chubby cheeked cherubs adorning two unrelated stones in the old South Hampton Cemetery on Long Island where we were this last weekend.  Obviously done by the same craftsman who had a unique style that makes you smile, although I'm not sure that was his intention.

So remember...get up close, wait for good lighting, focus well, get a good, sharp, even composition, level and well centered, and make sure the information you want to transmit is interesting as well as informative.  Then, take a minute or two to stop and read about the person whose stone you just photographed and think about them and who they might have been.  After all that is what the stone is for, to insure that you will be remembered.

                                                                           Pablo