The madonna in a harsh landscape
The cemetery in Saragosa, Texas, is always hot, always dry. The ground between graves is hard-packed dirt, with nothing growing to soften the edges of the markers, of memories, of loss.
A tornado struck the town in 1987, killing 30 people – including children and families taking part in a Head Start graduation ceremony at the parish hall. A loss of 30 people is bad…but at the time, the town’s population was less than 200.
It doesn’t take long in the cemetery to spot markers with a common date: May 27, 1987.
Toward the center of the cemetery, this blonde madonna guards a grave, her calm and patient face a respite from everything else.
Saragosa, Texas
photographed 11.11.2011
Posted on August 11, 2013, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, cemetery, melinda green harvey, one day one image, photo a day, photography, saragosa, saragosa cemetery, saragosa texas, saragosa tornado, texas. Bookmark the permalink. 12 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
I do like this photo but it is a grim reminder of what happened in 1987.
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Poor little Saragosa hasn’t ever recovered from that storm: it’s easy to spot storm-damaged structures even now.
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The loss of 30/200 would be enough to destroy a small town. What’s the population now?
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Surprisingly, the population seems to be about the same – it’s not officially listed with the census because it’s so small, but a couple of other sources reported it at 220.
But I also found this: the average household income in Saragosa is $12,031; the average for the state is $50,920. I could tell driving through that it was not a thriving community, but I didn’t realize the income levels were so low.
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I got distracted when looking at this earlier and ended up reading about the Lubbock tornado. I am glad we don’t get those around here, especially since I have a very cheaply build house, and no basement.
This is a lovely shot – the pastel colours are really nice. And of course a really deep shadow.
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Our house wasn’t damaged during that tornado, but my dad’s office was hit. My dad, a civil engineer, was part of a team that surveyed the damage downtown; he was able to get some very good photos.
I went WAY out on a limb with this shot – color and cropped!
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Kudos on the cropping and colour, that’s how to make a shot sometimes.
It would be interesting to see those shots of your dad’s sometime. Was he a well practised photographer?
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He shot photos the way you’d think an engineer would – technically good, but without much passion. He helped me set up the very first photo I ever shot, of a mountain lake in Colorado, framed with a boulder in the foreground. I hope to (a) soon take possession of his collection of slides and (b) find that shot.
Later, when he switched to shooting prints, he had quite a ritual to show us the prints. We’d sit around a table, and he’d dole the photos out one by one, and we’d pass them along, all around the table until they arrived (safely, thank god!) back in his hands; as soon as all the pictures from one roll of film had made it around the table, he’d put them back in the envelope, and open the next one. It was just as entertaining to watch him being so nervous about letting the prints out of his possession as it was to see the pictures.
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That is a delightful story. I bet he was keeping the prints in negative order in case he wanted to easily find it and make another. I used to be a bit fussy about keeping them in order myself, though I failed in that department, so I can appreciate that part of his ritual. And there WAS ceremony and excitement at opening a roll of prints or box of slides when they first arrived, to see how they turned out. That is mostly lost with digital and the ability to review on camera screen.
Did you have to wear white cotton gloves when handling the prints?
Good luck on finding that first ever image. You should post it when you find it. I should find mine, I know where to look. Though I don’t remember the subject, it was a snapshot with a brownie of some kind.
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Yes, he was keen on keeping the prints in order, though I don’t recall that he every ordered prints. He’d also number the envelopes (ENGLAND 3 of 7) in his draftsman lettering.
We did not have to wear gloves, but he would have probably been happy if we had!
And, I will post that shot, if I can find it. Was there some particular significance to the brownie you photographed?
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Ha ha ha! Significant brownies happened when I was about 10 years older.
http://www.brownie-camera.com/
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“Significant Brownies” would be a good name for a rock band. Pass that along if you have any musicians in your family…..
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