Star-shaped holes
The book Exploring the Big Bend Country (by Peter Koch and June Cooper Price) describes the cemetery in the border town of Lajitas as a “poor man’s cemetery.” The authors go on to state:
“The graves in the Lajitas cemetery are mostly simple mounds covered with a layer of heavy rocks. Here and there a wooden cross is held in place – almost – with blocks of heavy limestone.”
At this particular grave, the sun had baked the white stars completely out of what was left of the flag as it flutters itself into nothingness above the grave of one of the poor men of the border.
Lajitas, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
Posted on February 13, 2013, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, black and white photography, cemetery, exploring the big bend country, june cooper price, lajitas cemetery, lajitas texas, melinda green harvey, one day one image, peter koch, photo a day, photography, texas. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
Great shot. Even a textile conservator could do nothing for this flag.
LikeLike
If you should happen to ever have a chance to ask a textile conservator, could you ask her why the fabric decayed the way it did? My theory is that the flag was made of white cloth that was stamped with red and blue ink, so that the first parts to go were the unprotected white areas.
LikeLike
That is a good theory. A responsible textile conservator would not give advice without examining the textile in person, because there are other possibilities, e.g. the white could have been created by bleaching the colour out of the fabric, weakening the fibres in those areas, or the printing stiffened the coloured areas and the white suffered from mechanical damage snapping back and forth in the breeze, or the white absorbed dirt particles which abraded the fibres…or a combination of several reasons.
LikeLike
Thanks for this information. It is all very interesting and gives me a lot to think about when I see decaying flags and etc. in cemeteries. I have a large collection of photographs of roadside memorials (mostly crosses) and a lot of them were decorated with various sorts of fabrics; I think I will look back through those shots to see the condition of the fabrics. It wasn’t something I paid particular attention to at the time I was shooting the photos!
If you decide that you just MUST come to Texas to examine this for yourself, let me know, as I would be available to provide chauffeuring services.
LikeLike
Pingback: I only report what I see | One Day | One Image