It used to be something else
I was drawn to this cross from the instant I stepped into El Calvario cemetery: it stood higher than everything but the few trees.
Later, I noticed that the wood had been used before. The wood in the crosspiece is a length of treated lumber, like you’d use for a deck or something that was going to be in contact with the ground; that’s why it has all those little horizontal lines. And the upright was something else, too – see how the parts on either side of the crosspiece are smooth compared to the lower section that’s had something nailed onto it.
A lot of mysteries, here.
Puerto de Luna, New Mexico
photographed 9.21.2013
Posted on September 27, 2013, in Cemetery, Photography and tagged 365 photo project, black and white photography, cemetery, el calvario cemetery, melinda green harvey, new mexico, one day one image, photo a day, photography, puerto de luna, puerto de luna new mexico, recycled wood. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
There is an abundance of different textures that I find very interesting in this cross. Like the squares at the top section (or did you add those because you needed more rectangles?). It’s a terrific shot.
While we are on the subject of black skies (?) as I failed to mention in yesterdays post, I do like the black sky. I had an instructor (about 100 years ago) who could not tolerate a black sky in prints. He said all skies have detail in them and he wanted to see it in the prints we submitted. I realized the point he was trying to make and here I am, years later, still remembering what he said. It had nothing to do with a black sky at all. He wanted us to learn how to control the contrast, highlight and shadow detail in print. Then we can have all the black skies we wanted.
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Believe it or not – but that cross came with those squares at the top!
I don’t want to argue with your professor, but sometimes skies don’t have detail – no clouds or contrails or anything, just blue. Or, you know, black.
On the other hand, I’ve only recently realized that I can crop images, which is my own hard-to-get-past lesson from a photography class I took in college (also about 100 years ago) when we weren’t permitted to crop. Anything. Ever.
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Love the textures and the black sky. There is a gradation (is that the word?) in the sky. Call it a detail. So nicely isolated.
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Thanks, Donna. I wonder if “lack of detail” could be considered a “detail”?
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I wonder if the person memorialised would be pleased with wood recyled as a cross. Might be. Also, in 50 years, will the pressure treated still be there, and the other bit not? Nice textures though, while it lasts.
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I like to think the cross was made from something that held meaning to the deceased.
And the pressure treated wood probably will still be there in 50 years; the other wood might, too, as it’s an arid climate.
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