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The watery grave
I came here to spend the night inside the walls of a Spanish fort, Presidio la Bahía, which dates from the 1740s. But before I sequestered myself for the night, I spent a little time exploring the nearby town of Goliad. That’s how I found this tiny, unnamed cemetery. Eventually all these cemeteries start to look the same, so I was disinclined to stop and make some photos. But then I saw that sprinkler perched on the stone wall. It reminded me of my very favorite book Traveling Sprinkler, by Nicholson Baker.
Goliad, Texas
photographed 5.6.2019
Dennis Hopper was nearby
Our traveling companions were keen to find Dennis Hopper’s grave, which is not all that easily accomplished. But we stuck it out, and eventually located it.
In the meantime, there was this fantastic view of the mountains north of us.
Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
photographed 3.16.2019
Her death became a prison
View from inside a cemetery shrine, constrained by the bars on the glass-free window.
Shafter, Texas
photographed 12.22.2018
Unmarked
It’s mostly a ghost town now, but at one point the place had six silver mines and a population of around 4,000. (The 2000 census listed the population at 11; I’d guess that by now the population is in single digits.)
But the cemetery is sizable. It’s also rugged, with cactus and mesquite trees alongside rocked-topped graves. Most of the graves are marked with simple wooden crosses, none of which have any identifying information on them. And, oddly, in a town with almost no inhabitants, the paint on most of the crosses appears to be fairly new. But someone paints them…
Shafter, Texas
photographed 12.22.2018
Clouds and branches fight it out
Winter-dead ivy branches seemed to be clawing at the sky. Maybe they’d already scraped the clouds into those little pieces?
San Angelo, Texas
photographed 11.24.2018
One Day | One Image 