Shooting the white tombstones was amazing on two levels. One was because of where I was and knowing that many of those people died in the service of their country, and the other was turning the white dotted hilly landscape into art.
One of the challenges in shooting the tombstones was figuring out how to shoot them on the hill and get a very large number of them in the frame. Shooting them diagonally was what worked for me in delivering the impact I wanted. That impact was the shear numbers of those who died either in combat or at one time had served their country. The images don’t need words; they speak for themselves. The same goes for the “Eyes Wide Open” image I took around a year ago in Sacramento when the boots of soldiers killed in Iraq were on display at the Capitol.Also included in these new images is another shoot I took on early Sunday morning in the city of Elk Grove, and specifically in its Old Town District, which is loaded with character.
The mailboxes turned out to be my favorite image of the day, but Old Town offered up many more images that told their own story by just looking at them. I used sepia tones on many of the images because that’s how I see Old Town. It’s nostalgic. The barber pole is heavy in the symbolism too. You don’t see them a lot anymore, and they represent a time that seems to be fading away. And then there’s the doorway with the edge of the window in the image. It tells a story too. Just let your mind wander and let it talk to you.
To see the images I made in their full size, including the one shown above, check out my website.
