i don't get it sometimes: people visiting sao jorge castle in lisbon, will come across a cemetery there and are impressed with the history. so what's the problem if one takes photos there? than in paris we have, let's say one if the most visited graves in the world: jim morrison's. what is the problem if one take photos?
people searching on google or whatever are expecting to see photos of places to visit: a thumb, a grave, whatever. how if people are not taking photos are share them?
nothing wrong with making pictures in cemeteries. But then, there also are people who don't like to visit cemeteries, or might not be in the mood for anything related to death. I wrote the intro because i did not want to impose the theme on people.
When i visited the Père Lachaise, they had set a fence to keep people a few metres away from Morrison's tombstone: apparently, it was getting too much attention, too many visits...
Pierre, thank you for sharing this. I am too fascinated with old cemeteries and have photographed there. Why shouldn’t we?
The photographs are great, especially the scans with the “additional layer”. Wonderful. The only little thing for me is, that you chose the print on demand choice. I get the point of low costs and easy way of contribution of the book, but you have put so much love and work into the photographs and the idea behind it, that imo it would have deserved a nicer “finish”. I am sorry, if that was too direct and honest. I just wanted to give you some food for thought. I hope you don’t mind.
Thank you, Susanne, both for the kind words and the food for thought :-)
There's no reason not to take the camera to the cemetery, i think, but i was willing not to impose that topic on readers without a brief word of warning.
A discussion of the choice of format for putting photographs and words out in the world would be a long conversation — maybe a good topic for a post.
I love photography books and artists' books — one that is currently open on an easel at home is a hand-sewn series of beautifully printed images, and it is a thing of beauty, and a precious possession. And I also think that less refined forms of circulating art and cultural production can be very effective, that is, the work of an artist can touch people's hearts and souls when dressed in cheaper, less elegant clothes.
The choice of on-demand printing responded to a sense of urgency: i felt the need to finalise and put out there in the world a series of projects that had been ongoing for a while (the cemetery project being one of them), and i had the deep intuition that it needed to be done rapidly, that things were ripe, that the time was now. To me, that small, cheap book is 'good enough' to fulfil its role. ( This said, the plan is also to offer a higher-end version — using a different on-demand printing service).
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and what lead to your decision to use print -on-demand. In the end it counts what works for the artist. That's what should matter.
I totally agree that "less elegant clothes" work just as well. Just look at the zine culture. Best example that it can work.
I guess, I wrote my comment because I would have loved to see the book in different "clothes".
Love cemeteries! Even though I want to be eaten by wild chinchillas, I appreciate the stillness and wisdom of a good cemetery. Like the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, or Cemitério de Agramonte in Porto, or Père Lachaise and Montmartre in Paris, Novodevichy in Moscow, and many others. I'm an atheist, but I do believe in ghosts. Every time I visit one of those cemeteries, I hold a seance with my favorite writers.
Could you comment on the scanning/processing process of the final 3 images. I like them very much. I appreciate the distressed look. Is that what you were referring to with "cristal paper"? I'm not familiar with what that means.
I don’t scan negatives often, so i had to improvise with whatever was available. To be honest, i liked the idea of doing things that way, playing around.
I set the camera on a tripod with a macro extension tube.
Someone had suggested that a tablet (with an empty text document left open) could do an acceptable light table. The screen of the device produced a grid texture in the file, which really did not work well with these images from the cemetery.
So, i inserted a sheet of used ‘cristal paper’ between the iPad and the negative. This is the sort of thin, protective and translucent paper that is used to wrap prints or art from scratches. I had no idea what to call that sort of paper, and i can’t remember where i found the name — this is the thing: https://amzn.eu/d/091JwAvt
The paper i had at hand was slightly creased.
I used a piece of glass to hold the negatives flat. The glass itself was dusty, which i thought might work here.
Then it was back to Adobe to process the images.
When i saw the result, i felt that it worked very well with the theme, and this enabled me to finalise the project into a book (i had sort of found the missing piece).
Interesting! I have not yet scanned this way. I was prepared to use a macro and light box but a guy named George who lurks around here said an Epson scanner was the way to go. But I've seen other results with light box as you have done it. An i Pad is not ideal light-wise, but it can get the job done. I can't of course compare, since i haven't tried the scanning yet, but from what I can tell, what I see is obviously not the perfect scan, but a "happy mistake" that produced a pretty cool image for your theme. Not dissimilar i suspect if you had scanned it with high quality scanner, or printed in dark room then scanned the print and ultimately processed in photoshop with a paper filter to achieve the distressed look. But I like how this came out via the various mechanical steps you took. I like this a lot. Thanks for the details. Gives me food for thought.
Yes, indeed, the effect could certainly have been produced in PS. But i'm not sure i would have known what to aim for: it's the lucky accident that mattered in this case. Now that i know the look, i might try other ways to achieve it next time.
Pierre, I love the title, the project and the photos! “a simple meditation on the uncomfortable truth that our time on Earth is limited.” I think it’s fabulous! I started a similar project in Argentina, but I never finished it. Even inspired me to possibly continue down that vein. Cemeteries don’t scare me… I think they’re beautiful!
Thanks, Shital. Someone told me the other day, cemeteries will tell you a lot about the culture of the places you go to — i hadn't really thought of that.
i don't get it sometimes: people visiting sao jorge castle in lisbon, will come across a cemetery there and are impressed with the history. so what's the problem if one takes photos there? than in paris we have, let's say one if the most visited graves in the world: jim morrison's. what is the problem if one take photos?
people searching on google or whatever are expecting to see photos of places to visit: a thumb, a grave, whatever. how if people are not taking photos are share them?
nothing wrong with making pictures in cemeteries. But then, there also are people who don't like to visit cemeteries, or might not be in the mood for anything related to death. I wrote the intro because i did not want to impose the theme on people.
When i visited the Père Lachaise, they had set a fence to keep people a few metres away from Morrison's tombstone: apparently, it was getting too much attention, too many visits...
I love the idea of them being Cities of the dead. Poignant.
Pierre, thank you for sharing this. I am too fascinated with old cemeteries and have photographed there. Why shouldn’t we?
The photographs are great, especially the scans with the “additional layer”. Wonderful. The only little thing for me is, that you chose the print on demand choice. I get the point of low costs and easy way of contribution of the book, but you have put so much love and work into the photographs and the idea behind it, that imo it would have deserved a nicer “finish”. I am sorry, if that was too direct and honest. I just wanted to give you some food for thought. I hope you don’t mind.
Thank you, Susanne, both for the kind words and the food for thought :-)
There's no reason not to take the camera to the cemetery, i think, but i was willing not to impose that topic on readers without a brief word of warning.
A discussion of the choice of format for putting photographs and words out in the world would be a long conversation — maybe a good topic for a post.
I love photography books and artists' books — one that is currently open on an easel at home is a hand-sewn series of beautifully printed images, and it is a thing of beauty, and a precious possession. And I also think that less refined forms of circulating art and cultural production can be very effective, that is, the work of an artist can touch people's hearts and souls when dressed in cheaper, less elegant clothes.
The choice of on-demand printing responded to a sense of urgency: i felt the need to finalise and put out there in the world a series of projects that had been ongoing for a while (the cemetery project being one of them), and i had the deep intuition that it needed to be done rapidly, that things were ripe, that the time was now. To me, that small, cheap book is 'good enough' to fulfil its role. ( This said, the plan is also to offer a higher-end version — using a different on-demand printing service).
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and what lead to your decision to use print -on-demand. In the end it counts what works for the artist. That's what should matter.
I totally agree that "less elegant clothes" work just as well. Just look at the zine culture. Best example that it can work.
I guess, I wrote my comment because I would have loved to see the book in different "clothes".
It is coming...
Thanks again for the food for thought, really appreciated.
Love cemeteries! Even though I want to be eaten by wild chinchillas, I appreciate the stillness and wisdom of a good cemetery. Like the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, or Cemitério de Agramonte in Porto, or Père Lachaise and Montmartre in Paris, Novodevichy in Moscow, and many others. I'm an atheist, but I do believe in ghosts. Every time I visit one of those cemeteries, I hold a seance with my favorite writers.
Quite the connoisseur's list that you have there, Alex.
An atheist who believes in ghosts — i like that!
Absolutely beautiful.
Could you comment on the scanning/processing process of the final 3 images. I like them very much. I appreciate the distressed look. Is that what you were referring to with "cristal paper"? I'm not familiar with what that means.
Sure thing, Mark. Here goes.
I don’t scan negatives often, so i had to improvise with whatever was available. To be honest, i liked the idea of doing things that way, playing around.
I set the camera on a tripod with a macro extension tube.
Someone had suggested that a tablet (with an empty text document left open) could do an acceptable light table. The screen of the device produced a grid texture in the file, which really did not work well with these images from the cemetery.
So, i inserted a sheet of used ‘cristal paper’ between the iPad and the negative. This is the sort of thin, protective and translucent paper that is used to wrap prints or art from scratches. I had no idea what to call that sort of paper, and i can’t remember where i found the name — this is the thing: https://amzn.eu/d/091JwAvt
The paper i had at hand was slightly creased.
I used a piece of glass to hold the negatives flat. The glass itself was dusty, which i thought might work here.
Then it was back to Adobe to process the images.
When i saw the result, i felt that it worked very well with the theme, and this enabled me to finalise the project into a book (i had sort of found the missing piece).
Interesting! I have not yet scanned this way. I was prepared to use a macro and light box but a guy named George who lurks around here said an Epson scanner was the way to go. But I've seen other results with light box as you have done it. An i Pad is not ideal light-wise, but it can get the job done. I can't of course compare, since i haven't tried the scanning yet, but from what I can tell, what I see is obviously not the perfect scan, but a "happy mistake" that produced a pretty cool image for your theme. Not dissimilar i suspect if you had scanned it with high quality scanner, or printed in dark room then scanned the print and ultimately processed in photoshop with a paper filter to achieve the distressed look. But I like how this came out via the various mechanical steps you took. I like this a lot. Thanks for the details. Gives me food for thought.
Yes, indeed, the effect could certainly have been produced in PS. But i'm not sure i would have known what to aim for: it's the lucky accident that mattered in this case. Now that i know the look, i might try other ways to achieve it next time.
That's a very nice set of images. I think cemeteries are lovely places to photograph.
Thank you, Olli. Some cemeteries certainly are.
Pierre, I love the title, the project and the photos! “a simple meditation on the uncomfortable truth that our time on Earth is limited.” I think it’s fabulous! I started a similar project in Argentina, but I never finished it. Even inspired me to possibly continue down that vein. Cemeteries don’t scare me… I think they’re beautiful!
So glad you enjoyed reading this, Juliette. Thank you.
I have always had a fascination for cemeteries though I am not sure why. Very interesting piece Pierre!
Thanks, Shital. Someone told me the other day, cemeteries will tell you a lot about the culture of the places you go to — i hadn't really thought of that.
That’s a good insight. Makes sense Pierre.