Minnesota
Image by Conspiracy.of.Cartographers
I have photographed a great number of gravestones this shooting season. I try to treat each as a portrait – or, at least, how I think someone might approach a portrait (having never shot one myself).
Each stone is unique, each setting is original, and person represented is a different and often unknowable story. This little one, Randine Hansdatter Ihlen, born and died in 1879, has no remembered story. Their life was six weeks long and no parents are listed in the records. She is buried with her people, and there’s a sense she was loved while they were also alive.
If you look through a book of portraits taken by an accomplished portrait photographer, you’ll see that even at first glance, each photograph looks different from the next. This, even though the photos are essentially the same: person’s head, repeat.
Looking through the many gravestone photos I have yet to share, even at first glance, I’m seeing as many differences as I see patterns. I see a style emerging, and I see a revolt against that style lest it becomes rote.
I can see myself, on the days when I was exhausted or burdened, falling into a sequence whose creativity has wandered. And on days when I am inspired by either life or scene, there is a newness to even the most common settings.
One composition I wanted to achieve on this recent trip was a stone with a church and gate in the background. A friend had done thing (and her’s is much better), and I wanted to see what I could do.
That composition never presented itself to me, but this one did, and I took it. I like that it hints at the church, rather than features it. It is more me. I was thankful for the sun, but metering was a trial.
Overcoming my own exhaustion on the road is no simple thing because it’s not like the exhaustion from lack of sleep or running (though it is also both of those). It’s an exhaustion of your entire being. It is a weight that drags on you physically and mentally and whatever passes for spiritually (creatively?).
The home that you need to unburden, to let go of this weight, can be thousands of miles away. And so places you re-visit year upon year become this new home, this alternative place to unburden.
While I love the way I travel, I never recommend it to anybody. I seldom travel with anybody. My exhaustion remains my own, alone.
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‘Little Ones Against the Stones’
Camera: Chamonix 45F-2
Lens: Steinheil München Anastigmat Actinar 4.5; 135mm
Film: Fomapan 100
Exposure: f/12.5; 1/50sec
Process: FA-1027; 1+14; 9min
Minnestoa
July 2023
