I shot one roll of film at the cemetery
Diana Mini F+
Diana Mini F+
let me introduce a little project, the first of many, i hope, with the same setup. i single roll exploration on a theme. 35mm film, loaded in a toy camera. this one is a Diana mini. 24 frames to try and say something visually, then move along. here goes.
a few years ago, i wrote an article for Lightleaks magazine about the cliche' that is cemetery photography. (read the text below if you would like.) as cliched as it is, there's still something in my past relating to this act that i can't see to shake. i spent too much time in the cemetery as a kid, for the reason most of us visit the cemetery but also, for 'entertainment' purposes i suppose. let me explain, i loved looking that the names, the wide variety of names, odd, old-timey ones. goofy, innuendo-laden ones. i am not exaggerating when i say, i spent hours doing this on occasion. it sounds weird i know but i also spent tons of time 'reading' the local phone directory for the same reason and read the yellow pages like they were an issue of 'Batman.' yeah, i know.
so this exercise was at first photographic, then ultimately something a little more...i will post all the frames as i see fit. words, stones and the feelings they evoke. none of these images are meant to diminish or demean any of the bodies that lie underneath the granite makers. quite the opposite really, in my own way, it's a tribute to familiar strangers that all left a indelible smudge in my psyche.
Original article available in Lightleaks #3.
With camera strap around neck, like you, I’m always searching. Searching for subject matter. Something! Anything! When I made the decision some 24 years ago to “be a photographer” I, again like you, had delusions of the exciting, globetrotting life of a Magnum shooter with a enough interesting images awaiting my clicks to fill a library shelf of books with my name on them. Surprise, surprise, I’m stuck here in Central Kentucky, like I have been since I first began my filmic pursuits. So Magnum hasn’t come a-calling, and instead of being hunkered down in a war zone or a natural disaster with $25,000 in equipment, I’m making do with a plastic poop d’jour black box full of film forever prowling for interesting “shootables” amid the oft-referenced stomping grounds of the photo/artist/wannabe. That is what this column is all about. I’m going to boldly go were everyman has gone before, the places we all end up one time or the other looking for…Something! Anything! The clickity clichéd is my destination…first stop, the cemetery.
The cemetery as photo stop is near, dear, and close to my heart. As a kid, about once every 6 months, I’d pull down a cardboard box out of my grandmother’s wardrobe. In that box was an unorganized stash of our family’s history of life up until that moment. The family photo box full of old Polaroids and square format Brownie shots of relatives I had never known, the deceased and my immediates in their youth. Nothing special, I suspect, to differentiate mine from yours, but one thing did stick out. The amount of family moments captured at the local cemetery. Not arty or creative in nature, these were simple grinnings snapped at picnics near the headstones and arm in arm young lovers near the mausoleums. Through these repeated viewings, I guess I figured all families used the cemetery like a local park. It wasn’t till much later in life that I realized this wasn’t the case, but the cemetery had already been seared into my wrinkly grey matter as makeshift studio and potential hot spot for my photo musings. So, no doubt, in times of creative lulls, I recharge at the graveyard, cuz, as the old joke says…people are just dying to get in there…and I bet many times you, photographically, have been too.
The cemetery is old, iconic, and full of textures, shapes and solitude; there is no denying its photo-zazz…hence the multitudes of images created by the like-minded. So how does one capture an image of note at an over-photographed and platitudinal place of pictures? Get creative, think differently and with a toy camera in hand, aided by its limited controls, lack of real view finding and less than perfect lens, let loose from the conventional by trying something potentially photographically “wrong.” It isn’t a time for reverence and banal upright citizenry. Drag along a model, plop them down near graves, in the roads and paths, heck, give that tombstone a sit-down if you see fit. Visiting a loved one in my local infernal resting place and you’ll find me on my back looking for angles, crawling with close-up filtered plastic lenses looking for textures in the inscriptions and giggling joyfully at the inappropriate word-play of funny names and double entendre. Your loss, may very well, be my gain under the guise of making a memorable image.
And if you think black and whites of granite has been done to death, go for over saturated color film stocks. This works great if you are into flora and fauna (like melancholy Tread gets when hung-over) and nothing says eternal love to me like plasclass="main-text" id="yui_3_3_0_3_132858754272797">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer sit amet tincidunt lorem. Integer a enim a neque ullamcorper eleifend. Quisque tempor dictum purus, in pretium dui ullamcorper sodales. Mauris ante lorem, hendrerit nec blandit et, congue non velit. Proin ut tortor vel enim commodo ornare eget id nisi. Nunc sit amet tellus nibh, vel interdum dolor. Quisque tincidunt, nulla ut imperdiet placerat, magna augue elementum orci, ac sollicitudin urna turpis non sem. Aliquam erat volutpat. Proin bibendum varius vestibulum. In id justo at magna posuere pharetra quis ac nulla. Suspendisse vestibulum justo at massa imperdiet laoreet. Cras euismod adipiscing neque, ac tristique nisl luctus sit amet. Nunc accumsan felis ut lectus vulputate quis blandit sapien egestas. Pellentesque justo neque, auctor quis hendrerit vitae, tempus eget magna. Sed id lobortis augue. Nam pharetra sagittis leo, id vehicula elit faucibus sit amet. Integer facilisis imperdiet dui in commodo.
a few years ago, i wrote an article for Lightleaks magazine about the cliche' that is cemetery photography. (read the text below if you would like.) as cliched as it is, there's still something in my past relating to this act that i can't see to shake. i spent too much time in the cemetery as a kid, for the reason most of us visit the cemetery but also, for 'entertainment' purposes i suppose. let me explain, i loved looking that the names, the wide variety of names, odd, old-timey ones. goofy, innuendo-laden ones. i am not exaggerating when i say, i spent hours doing this on occasion. it sounds weird i know but i also spent tons of time 'reading' the local phone directory for the same reason and read the yellow pages like they were an issue of 'Batman.' yeah, i know.
so this exercise was at first photographic, then ultimately something a little more...i will post all the frames as i see fit. words, stones and the feelings they evoke. none of these images are meant to diminish or demean any of the bodies that lie underneath the granite makers. quite the opposite really, in my own way, it's a tribute to familiar strangers that all left a indelible smudge in my psyche.
Original article available in Lightleaks #3.
With camera strap around neck, like you, I’m always searching. Searching for subject matter. Something! Anything! When I made the decision some 24 years ago to “be a photographer” I, again like you, had delusions of the exciting, globetrotting life of a Magnum shooter with a enough interesting images awaiting my clicks to fill a library shelf of books with my name on them. Surprise, surprise, I’m stuck here in Central Kentucky, like I have been since I first began my filmic pursuits. So Magnum hasn’t come a-calling, and instead of being hunkered down in a war zone or a natural disaster with $25,000 in equipment, I’m making do with a plastic poop d’jour black box full of film forever prowling for interesting “shootables” amid the oft-referenced stomping grounds of the photo/artist/wannabe. That is what this column is all about. I’m going to boldly go were everyman has gone before, the places we all end up one time or the other looking for…Something! Anything! The clickity clichéd is my destination…first stop, the cemetery.
The cemetery as photo stop is near, dear, and close to my heart. As a kid, about once every 6 months, I’d pull down a cardboard box out of my grandmother’s wardrobe. In that box was an unorganized stash of our family’s history of life up until that moment. The family photo box full of old Polaroids and square format Brownie shots of relatives I had never known, the deceased and my immediates in their youth. Nothing special, I suspect, to differentiate mine from yours, but one thing did stick out. The amount of family moments captured at the local cemetery. Not arty or creative in nature, these were simple grinnings snapped at picnics near the headstones and arm in arm young lovers near the mausoleums. Through these repeated viewings, I guess I figured all families used the cemetery like a local park. It wasn’t till much later in life that I realized this wasn’t the case, but the cemetery had already been seared into my wrinkly grey matter as makeshift studio and potential hot spot for my photo musings. So, no doubt, in times of creative lulls, I recharge at the graveyard, cuz, as the old joke says…people are just dying to get in there…and I bet many times you, photographically, have been too.
The cemetery is old, iconic, and full of textures, shapes and solitude; there is no denying its photo-zazz…hence the multitudes of images created by the like-minded. So how does one capture an image of note at an over-photographed and platitudinal place of pictures? Get creative, think differently and with a toy camera in hand, aided by its limited controls, lack of real view finding and less than perfect lens, let loose from the conventional by trying something potentially photographically “wrong.” It isn’t a time for reverence and banal upright citizenry. Drag along a model, plop them down near graves, in the roads and paths, heck, give that tombstone a sit-down if you see fit. Visiting a loved one in my local infernal resting place and you’ll find me on my back looking for angles, crawling with close-up filtered plastic lenses looking for textures in the inscriptions and giggling joyfully at the inappropriate word-play of funny names and double entendre. Your loss, may very well, be my gain under the guise of making a memorable image.
And if you think black and whites of granite has been done to death, go for over saturated color film stocks. This works great if you are into flora and fauna (like melancholy Tread gets when hung-over) and nothing says eternal love to me like plasclass="main-text" id="yui_3_3_0_3_132858754272797">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer sit amet tincidunt lorem. Integer a enim a neque ullamcorper eleifend. Quisque tempor dictum purus, in pretium dui ullamcorper sodales. Mauris ante lorem, hendrerit nec blandit et, congue non velit. Proin ut tortor vel enim commodo ornare eget id nisi. Nunc sit amet tellus nibh, vel interdum dolor. Quisque tincidunt, nulla ut imperdiet placerat, magna augue elementum orci, ac sollicitudin urna turpis non sem. Aliquam erat volutpat. Proin bibendum varius vestibulum. In id justo at magna posuere pharetra quis ac nulla. Suspendisse vestibulum justo at massa imperdiet laoreet. Cras euismod adipiscing neque, ac tristique nisl luctus sit amet. Nunc accumsan felis ut lectus vulputate quis blandit sapien egestas. Pellentesque justo neque, auctor quis hendrerit vitae, tempus eget magna. Sed id lobortis augue. Nam pharetra sagittis leo, id vehicula elit faucibus sit amet. Integer facilisis imperdiet dui in commodo.
