Friday, November 03, 2023

Memories fade

Looking beyond the fence
Arva, ON
October 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram


The muddy grey skies are beginning to spit rain as I approach the fence surrounding the church cemetery.

Motorists on the adjacent country road are slowing down, looking through streaked windshields at the weird guy sizing up the headstones through the ornate fence. I’m sure at least a couple of them consider calling 911 before they hit the gas and continue on their way.

I’ve been here before. In fact, I’ve been returning to places like this for almost as long as I’ve been a photographer. There’s a certain poignancy to them, to the stories of the now-ended lives that are marked here, and the families that visit them. Or don’t.

I get that some folks think it’s an odd thing to do. Who, after all, would want to shoot pictures in a graveyard?

But part of me likes to linger over the emptiness of these spaces, where the living look the other way as they pass by, unwilling to give more thought to a place that speaks of death. It’s human nature to not want to talk about any of this.

Which is why I feel compelled to point my lens toward something others would ignore. Because while not every story is a comfortable one, we still owe it to ourselves not to look away, and allow it to be told.

#ldnont #london #arva #ontario #canada #church #graveyard #cemetery #cemeteryphotography #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:
Remember me, February 2018
The tree of life, June 2013
When it's over... January 2011
Remembering why, November 2008
Remembering the dead, February 2007

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