The Watchman, TX

Finished setting up the show today – time to wander and see what I can see… I was told about a large cemetery not far away with lots of important people to the area at their final rest. I’ve always enjoyed walking through these places, reading the headstones, thinking about those who have come and gone before and wondering about what they saw in their day. In Maine I read stones from some of the early immigrants to this continent (one stated “first white women to die in the new world”), in New Orleans the plate would list all those in the family housed in that tomb as it was customary to buy one family tomb built above ground because of the high water table. At the turn of the century it was common practice to gather family, hitch the wagon to the horse, and head to the family plot for a picnic around the markers of your ancestors. Did Hollywood’s portrayal of scary characters make the graveyard a place to be avoided, or are we all pretending that we will live forever? Other cultures, including some native peoples on this continent visit the gravesites of family to clean up the grounds, show their respect, some even devote a day to this with elaborate decorations and celebrations.

I’ve heard it said that the best telephoto lens to use is your legs and I can attest to the wisdom of this. You see more from walking than you do from a car, yet many photographers drive until they see something interesting enough to stop and photograph. Only buzzards can live on “road kill”. Wander long enough, even in the block you live in, and you learn something. The more you learn, the more you see and seeing is how important photographs get done. This path leads to a personal vision, a way of seeing, that you can take everywhere. Wandering this way has resulted in a tremendous amount of growth in my personal vision and work that was just waiting for me to notice.

Wandering through this cemetery I found a wonderful Live Oak tree – probably between 800 to 1000 years old based on my uneducated opinion (having stood in the presence of live oaks from 100 to 1500 years old many times). Standing under a tree this age is like hiking the Grand Canyon or viewing a Thunderstorm: it right-sizes your problems - puts them in perspective.

Proximity required the use of three negatives to capture its power, anything less would be disrespectful! There’s plenty of tree outside of the frame and I trust the viewer to compose the rest of the story. This was not the hardest triptych I’ve ever done (no Super Cell Thunderstorm coming at me doing 30 mph) but it is the fastest. Taking my time and viewing the tree from all sides, I had settled on the place to stand and was leisurely setting up the view camera, watching the breeze and trying to measure how often I would get enough of a break to make the exposures. At that moment the grounds-keeper drove by stating “I’m locking the front gate in 10 minutes – if you are in after that, you are in for the night”! I named this tree the Watchman for I feel it guards those buried in it’s roots, and I felt watched over as well, but also for the “watchman” whose announcement moved me to action.




Travel Journal
March 2011