A Lonesome Walk in a Desert Cemetery

 I woke up in the dark of the night from the smell of burning wood smoke. It is fire season in the desert and the dried brush catches fire quickly. I knew the fire was a few miles away, given the minimal smoke that had reached our house.  Yet, half-asleep, I was overwhelmed with the scent of burning cedar. Of course it was from the cedar/pine family trees and junipers that had been touched by the brush fire.

And in a short moment, I relived moments in churches and cemeteries where such incense was burned.

Then I went back to sleep.

Early in the morning, and perhaps directed by my sub-conscience, I decided to take my dog for a walk in a nearby cemetery. I also took with me my old 1969 Nikon F, knowing that taking any photo while walking a 50 kg two-year old Akita on a leash is near impossible, especially when one has to set the aperture, and focus holding the camera with both hands…

Here is the entrance of the cemetery, my camera, and the sneaking head of my dog behind the structure:

I was wondering how the gravesides were organized, kept or forgotten. The strong sun, the sand, the drought of the land do not allow for any plants, trees or grass. It is sand and rocks upon those who were remembered by a gravestone, a cross or a simple plate.

I wanted to capture some of these characteristics, hoping that I can stop my dog from chasing lizards so I have a split second to focus and click.

Many of the grave sites were affected by the passage of time, loneliness perhaps, and the winds full of sand. There also were large numbers of hoof prints in the cemetery attesting to the fact that peccary and deer had made this secluded space their own.

Here is one that had stood the passage of all elements and perhaps feelings. Angels still standing upright:

While a nearby plot had been taken over by Prickly Pear cactus, the most prolific type of cactus in the high desert:

I tried to not identify the names on the gravestones for privacy consideration. Some photos have partially recognizable inscriptions, though. Here is one where I found a cap upon the stone. The hat has been weathered and given the lack of water/rain and the very dry weather materials do not rot or decompose as in more temperate climates. So this cap could have been there for many years.

I came across, after being pulled by my dog that sniffed fresh tracks of deer, to a humble grave surrounded by small rocks that were painted. It was a personalized grave site, and the stones had faces and profiles of Native American young men.  This was the only grave site I saw there with such an arrangement.

Finally, the most intriguing were the sites where the names on the plate or erected stones were mostly unintelligible and the cross was broken, or more recently replaced by two pieces of wood tied en guise of a cross.

Here is one example

And another that had a haunting appearance when I printed the frame:

… My dog was panting from all the running around and pouncing upon lizards that he never caught up with. The sun was getting already hot and it was time to return.

As I was walking slowly next to him, I kept on wondering why the dead would have a grave if few get visited.

And, as if the lizards that escaped a big dog, I realized that graves are for the living, not the dead.

PS/ Since I only scan my prints from negative strips, any blurring of "special effects" have to be done during the printing under the enlarger. I use a 1960's simple enlarger that has a Leica 39 lens screw type. That means that any Leica type 39 mm lens will be adaptable to the enlarger, even if these are camera lenses and not enlarger lenses. The difference is that enlarger lenses are flat field, meaning there is no aberration in the corners of the photo when printed. Camera lenses are not flat field but the front lens is convex. This means that all kinds of aberrations can happen when printing a photo! And I like that surprise dimension as I may get flare, soft/off focus spots, and uneven light distribution.

Here is what I did to have these effects on the above photos: I used a 1960s Soviet camera lens, A Jupiter -3, as an enlarger lens. I never liked the unpredictability of this lens when used to take pictures, but sometimes it surprises me with its "creativity" while printing the negatives!

September 13, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019