I visited a graveyard yesterday. The brown grass crackled under my feet in the 90 degree heat, and I didn't quite get what I was hoping to find. A Melville quote that I always hated..."Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope"...was not evident. Instead I was drawn to a large stone statue that appeared to look to be of a native American chief from behind, and turned out to be a local Polish Priest named Marianus Matkowski whose congregation obviously loved him. His marker is on a slight crown of a hill, surrounded by towering firs, and graves arranged circularly around his. The deer scat was thick in one shady spot, and a hawk called periodically at me from the tallest tree. I don't go to graveyards because I don't believe spirits would hang around their spent bodies of dust, but this time it did feel spiritual. Not dead, but alive. I can only find a mention of Marianus in a 1959 directory of Priest of Polish descent, but I know there must be a story concerning such an expensive grave marker. (Update below)
These were done with IR converted 5D, and the Nikkor-P.C 55mm f3.5 ai'd micro lens
Looking south from Marianus - at the time I shot this it looked like a tunnel of light
UPDATE: FROM THE PLAGUE - MARIANUS WAS THE FOUNDER OF THE CEMETERY
VIEW FROM BEHIND
